The Encyclopedia of Occult Sciences

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA of OCCULT SCIENCES

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA of

OCCULT SCIENCES Introduction by

M . C . POINSOT

ROBERT M . McBRIDE AND COMPANY New York

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULT SCIENCES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 1939 ROBERT M . McBRIDE AND COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. By M. C. PoINSOT The Aim of this Book-We must neither Mock nor Disdain the Occult Sciences before we Know them-The Immense Documentation of the Author-What is called Occultism, its Origin, its Development, its Sleep and its Reawaking during the last Century-In how far Occultism is Moral, Therapeutic and Divinatory-Fatalism, Determinism and Free Will-The Justification and the Experimental Reality of Astrology-The Astral Sign-Manual-What is Physiognomony and what are its Uses-The Planetary Types-Definite Interest of Chiromancy-Graphology and its Useful Introduction into the Upper SchoolsTheory of Cartomancy-Thoughts on Dreams-Clairvoyance and its Marvels-A Word as to Magic, Witchcraft, Alchemy, the Kabbala, Psychism and Metapsychism-Attempted Deductions by the Writer of the Preface himself .

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FIRST PART THE DIVINATORY SCIENCES

CHAPTER I AsTmoLooY Historical and General Observations-Opinion of Ch . Barlet-Significant Anecdotes -The Strange Adventure of Lord Finsbury, and the Death of Tudesq-Astounding Predictions (Nostradamus, Cazotte, etc .)-The Planets and the Determination of their Influence-Curious Theory as to Planetary and Chromatic RelationsMixtures of the Astral Fluids-The signs of the Zodiac and the Properties of the Constellations of the Zodiac-The Twelve Houses of the Sky and their Attributes -Aspects and Cycles-Table of the Decani and their Infuences-The Lord of the Hour--General Remarks on Horoscopy-Method of Discovering the Day of Birth-Casting of a Horoscope of Nativity-The Horoscope of the Present Day -Various Astrological Methods, one of which is within the Means of Everybody . PHYSIOGNOMONY

CHAPTER II

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Sections and Short History of this Science-General Remarks and Classification of Lavater-Table of the " Ideal Face "-Short Studies on the Signs of Power, on Family and Race Physiognomony, etc .-Small Physiognomonic Table of Temperaments and Characters-Comparison between certain Animal and Human Types-Synoptic Tables of Physiognomony-Forehead, Eyebrows, Eyes, Nose, Cheeks, Mouth, Lips, Teeth, Chin, Neck, Ears, Head, Hair and Beard, Figure, Skin, Voice, Walk, Movements-Love and Physiognomony . Types of the Best Husband and the Best Wife-Morphological Characteristics of Sexuality according to Dr . Zenope. Their Importance in Marriage . Elements of Phrenology Places of the Faculties in the Skull-Anecdotes about Gall-Objections to Phrenology . Elements of Planetary Typology according to Paul Jagot-The Face is the Living Translation of the Horoscope-Planetary Types according to Physiognomony-Table of Chiro-graphological Comparisons . A coming Science-Digitomaney (Divination by Finger Prints)-Elements of Psycho-physics according to Louis Gastin. 5

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER III CRUROMANOY General Observations and Theory-Chiromancy is in Truth a Science-Scientific Chiromancy according to Rem and Astrological Chiromancy according to Desbarolles, Muchery, Jagot, etc .-The Hand according to Louis GastinAnalysis of the Outer Shape of the Hand, the Fingers, the Nails, the Colour and the Hairs-The Four Types of Hands-Pointed, Square, Conical, SpatulateOther Divisions suggested by J . Leclercq and G. MucheryThe Palm-Fingers and their Joints. Special Study of the Thumb, the First Finger, the Middle Finger, the Ring Finger and the Little Finger-The Knots of the Hand-The Handshake-Chiromantio Geography-The Mounts of Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo, Mars, the Moon, the Field of Mars, etc .-The Three Chief Lines of the Hand (Life, Head, Heart), the Four Secondary Lines (Fate, Sun, Health, Intuition), the Accessory Lines (Small Lines at the Wrist, Ring of Venus, Lascivious Lines, etc.)-Supplemental Signs in the Hand (Stars, Crosses, Dots, Chains, Branches, Islands, Forks, Triangles, Bars, etc .)-Medical Chiromancy-Seeming Contradictions-Junctions and Combinations of Lines-Luck and the Hand-Adultery Legible in the Hand-A Specimen Print . CHAPTER IV GRAPnOLOOY - Antiquity and Modernisation of Graphology-Conditions of a Graphological Analysis-Usefulness of Graphology-Its Recent Students, Michon, Desbarolles, Crbpzeux-Jamin, etc .-Typical Anecdotes-Method-Results-Study of the General Aspect of Graphs (Margination, Spacing, Direction, Movement, Height and Joining of Letters, eto .)-Aspect of Capital Letters-Aspect of Small Letters --Secondary Aspects (Accents, Crosses, Stops and Punctuation, Initials and Finals, Signatures and Flourishes). Graphological summmg up according to F . Clerget-Influences Modifying Handwriting-Luck and Handwriting-Types of Writing. CHAPTER V CARTOMANCY History and Legends-Must we Believe the Cards ?-Anecdotes and Explanations -Meaning of the Cards-Colours, Hearts, Diamonds, Spades, and Clubs-Data of the Daguesah as to the Interpretation-Meaning of the Cards through Number and Proximity-A Method of Reading the Cards with a Pack of Thirty-two Cards -Various Solutions (Divinatory, Magical, the Sevens, the Packs, the Aces, etc .) . Taroo considered as a Game'-Meaning of the Major Cards, then of the Minor Cards-Consultation of the Taroc according to the Dauesah-Consultation of Taroo according to the Simplified Method suggested by 'Papua . CHAPTER VI ONIROMANCY All Nations, at ail Times, have Believed in Foretelling the Future by DreamsThe Most Famous of the Old Keys to Dreams-That of Artemidorus of EphesusSome Famous, Curious, or Undoubtedly Premonitory Dreams-Theory of Dreams (Causes and Explanations)-Affective Dreams and Intuitive Dreams-Classifications-Egyptian Golden Key (Days on which Dreams are a Good or a Bad Omen) -Dreams without Value and Real Dream-Oracles-General Rules as to the Interpretation of Dreams-a seriously drawn up Key to Dreams .

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' It must be remembered that Taroc appears twice in this book and under two different meaaiage (1) as a game (first part, Cartomancy) ; ( 2) as a hermetic synthesis (second part, High Magic) .

CONTENTS CHAPTER VII

Instances of the Innumerable Methods of Ancient Divination-Omens and those who Believe in them Natural Omens and Artificial Omens-Tables of Apantomancy (Omens from what is Seen, what is Received, what is Done)A Handful of Proverbs-Special Omens-Intimate Reckoning of Women according to the Amia-Oracles-Principal Means of Questioning the Future by the Interpretation of Lines made by Coffee Grounds, Molten Lead, etc .-Short Statement of the Main Oracles-Coffee Grounds (substituted for the Magic Mirror), White of Egg, Molten Lead, Shells, Pins, Paper, Gems, Steam, Smoke, Picking of the Da' , etc., etc.-A Little Manual for Lovers . lements of OnomancyTheory of the Influence of the Word, hence of the Personal Names given to Children-A Little Onomantic Dictionary (Meanings of the most usual Personal Names of Men and Women) . Clairvoyance-The Theory of Boirac as to Metagnomy-Fantastic and yet Conclusive Experiments-Theory of the Aura-Psychometry-Classic Story of the Watch which Speaks-The Most Remarkable Mineral Phenomena called " Gamah6s "-Sensitive Stones .-Attempt at Explanation.

SECONDARY DTVINATIONS

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SECOND PART THE MAGICAL SCIENCES CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY

What is Magic ?-Quotation from Jollivet-Castelot-'lhe Geographical Movement of Magic-The Great Magi-Magic Persecuted-Cryptography, Secret Magic Writing-Definition, Explanation and Instances of Esoterism The Episode of the Terrestrial Paradise and the Symbol of the Egyptian Sphynx-Another Explanation and Classification of Magic by Pierre Piobb, Barlet, Jagot .

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CHAPTER II

Low MAGIC Witchcraft and its Records-The Sabbath and its Extravagances-Trials for Witchcraft and the Sadism of the Judges-Witchcraft among Savages and Peasants, according to Lombroso-Various Thoughts on Witchcraft-Storehouse and Formulae of Low Magic-Abraxas-Amulets and Talismans-Magic RingsMagic Armour-Divining Rods-The Enchiridion-Bewitching by Hatred and by Love-Quotation from Dr. Legu6 Conjuring Books-Miraculous HerbsAncient and Modern Magic Mirrors-Mandragora-Necromancy and Compacts -Pentacles-Perfumes, Philtres and Charms-Domestic and Medical Formulae of Witchcraft--Satanism-Spells--Vampirism . Good Luck and Bad Luck-Presents and various Articles bringing Good Luck or Bad Luck-Lucky and Unlucky Days-Cledomancy (Fatidic or Conjuring Words)-Thoughts on Luck-Fetishes-Good Luck and Chance-Luck and Great Men-Luck and Slander. The Language of Flowers-Charm of Flowers-Legend of the Origin of Salems--New Dictionary of the Language of Flowers.

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CONTENTS The Magic of Stones-Table of Symbols and Qualities of Gems according to the Radnaparika of Buddhabhatta-Table of the Properties of Precious Stones according to Fraya-Another Table of the Symbolism of Gems. Symbolism and Influence of Colours . Modern Magic or the Employment of Hyperpsychical Forces-Classification of Hyperpsychical Phenomena according to P . Jagot-Constitution of Man according to the Occult Doctrine, and Attempt by Means of this Theory at an Explanation of Ancient and Modern Magic-Individual Magic or PsychisTraditional Magic-Employment of the Hype sychical Forces-Relations between the Planets and the Various Elements of Nature-Rational making of Talismans-The Calling Up of Spirits-Study of Witchcraft according to the Data of Modern Black Magic-Explanation and Possibility of Reproduction of the Most Astounding Marvels of Witchcraft-Proved Acts of Witchcraft Recorded in Judicial Books-Other Stupefying Tales related by Ely StarThe Speaking Stick,, the Man who Slept for Twenty Centuries, etc . Small Complementary Lexicon of Magic . CHAPTER III

ALCHEMY - Alchemy is neither the Stammering of Chemistry nor a Worn-out Science-The Theory and its Followers-Alchemy and Kabbala-Alchemy and Therapeutics -Universal Panacea, Philosopher's Stone and Palingenesis-Two Newspaper Articles showing that the Ancient Alchemists were not so Stupid as to Believe in the Creation of Life and the Sure Transmutation of Metals-An Extraordinnrv Discovery--Super-Radium,

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CHAPTER IV HIGH MAGIC Alchemy, the Connecting Link through its Illusions with Low Magic and through its Kabbahstic Principles with High Magic-What is the Kabbala ?--Short Outbreak of Bad Temper against the Ignorant and the Stupid-Main Kabbalistic IdeasThe Occult Power of Numbers, Secret Relationships, the Law of Analogy, the Power of Unknown Fluids, the Realm of the Word, etc .-Kabbalistic Explanations of the Prophecy of Ezekiel and of the Apocalypse--Other Kabbalistic Methods . The Mystery of Numbers-It has Always Struck the Nations-Some P agorean Ideas-The Review of Numbers The Unit, the Binary, the Ternary . T e Figure Seven, most Fatidic of All, etc .-The Ternary Key according to P . Piobb-Is 13 an Unlucky Number ?-Anecdotes about the Number 13 and about Fridays-Curious Historical Notes as to the Number 14-From 14 to 100 -More Quaint Things about Numbers-Kabbalistic Practices relating to Numbers . -How to find the Important Dates of a Life-Table Showing the Result of a Competition-The Hand of Fatima . Taroc, Kabbalistic Key, Synthetic Summing Up in Pictures of the Ancient Occult Science-The Basic Idea of Taroc is Universal-Obscure Origin of Taroc -The Sacred Word of Taroc according to Papus : Iod-He-Vau He (Evohe, Jeovah)-Relationship, according to P . Piobb, between the Hebrew Alphabet, the Leaves of Taroc, their Meaning, their Astrological Sign and their SymbolStudy of the 22 Major Arcana-Stud (especially according to E . Picard) of the 56 Minor Arcana divided into their lour Groups-Taroc Reminds of Theogony, Androgony and Cosmogony-Taroc may also be Studied from the Astrological Angle, the Basic Angle, the Kabbalistic Angle, the Divinatory Angle-Chief Occultists who Studied Taroc.

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THIRD PART THE METAPSYCHICAL SCIENCES CHAPTER I

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM Definition of the Metapsychical Sciences-Their Interest-Their First AspectMagnetism-Mineral, Animal, Human, Terrestrial, Astral Magnetism-Short History of Magnetism down to its Condemnation by the Academy-Its Reinstatement-From Mesmer to Braid, and from Braid to Richet-Hypnosis and Suggestion-Psycho-Magnetic Therapeutics-Scientism, the Healers-The Theory of Magnetism--Stages of Magnetisation, Somnambulism and Exteriorisation of Sensitiveness-Fabulous Experiences of Colonel de Rochas-Theory of Dual Personality and Apparitions-Study of Somnambulism, Hypnotism, Clairvoyance -Conclusive Anecdotes and Experiments-Reference back to the Explanations concerning Magio Mirrors, Coffee Grounds, Cartomancy, etc ., studied in the Light of Hyperpsyehism-Telepathy, Foreknowledge, etc .-A Word on ` Miracles "-The Reality of the Soul . Phenomena of Mediumship (Turning and Talking Tables, Knocks, Automatic Writing, Displacement of Articles, Ap ritions which can be photographed, etc.)-The Spiritist Doctrine-The Thesis oMeincarnation-There i8 no Death -Prudence is Necessary in the Study of Spiritism .

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CHAPTER II CoNcLusIoN. THE COMING RELIGIoN-ELEMENTs OF THEOSOPHY The Soul and the Perisprit (Outer Soul)-Neither the Supernatural nor Chance exists-Principal Laws of the Doctrine of Occultism (Laws of the Ternary, of the Series, of Involution and Evolution, of Relationships, of Signs of Support) -Astral Body and Astral Plane. Teachings of Theosophy-Triple Certainty of the Existence of God, the Immortality of Man, the Justice of Karma-Superior Morality of TheosophyGod and the Logos-That which Springs from the Logos and Returns to the Logos-A Few Observations-Quotation from Leon Denis by Way of Epilogue .

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APPENDICES NOTE I . NOTE II . NOTE III . NOTE IV . NOTE V . NOTE VI .

THINKING ANIMALS SECRET SOCIETIES HExAGRAMMISM HEALERS MODERN DIscovEmEs KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS A RECENT INSTRUCTIVE ENQUIRY

477 479 483 487 492 494

INTRODUCTION " 1 t is a sottish presumption to disdaine and condemne that for false, which unto us seemeth to beare no shew of likelihood or truth which is an ordinarie fault in those who perswade themselves to be of more sufficiency than the vulgar sort . So was I sometimes wont to doe, and if I heard any body speake, either of ghosts walking, of foretelling future things, of enchantments, of witchcrafts, or any other thing reported, which I could not well conceive, or that was beyond my reachDreames, magike terrors, witches, uncouth wonders, Night walking sprites, Thessalian conjur'd thundersI could not but feele a kind of compassion to see the poore and seely people abused with such follies . And now I perceive that I was as much to be moaned myselfe : Not that experience hath since made to discerne any thing beyond my former opinions : yet was not my curiositie the cause of it, but reason bath taught me, that so resolutely to condemne a thing for false and impossible, is to assume unto himselfe the advantage, to have the bounds and limits of Gods will, and of the power of our common mother Nature tied to his sleeve : And that there is no greater folly in the world than to reduce them to the measure of our capacitie and bounds of our su/iciencie. If we terme those things monsters or miracles to which our reason cannot attaine, how many such doe daily present themselves unto our sight ? "

MONTAIGNE .

INTRODUCTION I THE author of this Encyclopaedia has begged me to tell the reader at the very start of the Introduction which he has been good enough to ask of me, that it does not constitute a complete treatise of the sciences called Occult (this would require ten volumes at the least), nor will it be found to be new to the " initiated ." It is a popular compendium having for its main object the collection in one volume, easy to read and convenient to consult, of the facts and theories in the numerous special treatises which relate to each of these sciences . It is because his work has been that of popularising and not of creating (according to his account at . least) that the author has desired to remain anonymous, and straightway I congratulate him on having so well succeeded with this vade-mecum which the scholar, the woman of the world, the man in the street, the priest and the little maidservant will have on their table, like a dictionary, or a cookery book-a " perfect secretary " in fact . The task which I have before me is at once less difficult and more delicate . Although in more than one passage our anonymous author shews originality, expresses his opinion, discusses, and sometimes sums up, nevertheless he asks me to explain beforehand what in fact the occult sciences are, to state their connection with one another, to relate briefly their general history, to try to explain them shortly, and, finally, to shew their usefulness . This then is what I propose to attempt in a few pages-to shew why these sciences, which are no longer " accursed and which less and less remain " occult," form a whole which is venerable owing to its antiquity, curious owing to its tradition, solid owing to the idea which binds it, disturbing owing to its methods, marvellously interesting owing to its discoveries ; why above all these too much disdained sciences form an indispensable complement for the so-called official sciences which they strengthen in parts and in parts contradict ; why they rise again vigorously after a long sleep ; why they provide thinking people with an excellent foundation for the conduct of life ; and why, finally, they enable a road to be found to a new kind of belief which is free from those dogmas, rites and puerilities which drove us away from the worn-out religions ; and why they bring a consoling serenity to souls tormented by the riddle of fate and the aftermath of Death. 13

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES II

Before carrying out, to the extent of my modest knowledge and my humble reflections, this perhaps ambitious plan, I should like first of 'all to draw attention to the immense interest of the occult sciences and of the Occultism which is their synthesis, for is it not my duty, before speaking of them, to attract to them a notice which is refused to them by many through simple ignorance of their object and of their justification ? How many in fact mock at Astrology, Alchemy, Taroe or Chiromancy, even at Graphology which is surely as easy to understand as it is undeniable in its results I To how many does not the word " Occultism " suggest solely ideas of witchcraft or charlatanism, of secret or forbidden practices, or a return to Paganism, or even of obscure and dreaded Satanism ! Ignorance, yes ; whence actually disdain, mockery, fear, sometimes indignation . But, whether Occultism loses itself in the labyrinths of Magic, or concerns itself with Spiritualism, it is at bottom only the study of natural phenomena which are, however, in the main understood and explained (although Physiognomony and Graphology are within the reach of all) only by our hyperphysical senses, by what Paracelsus in one word called the sixth sense . The occult sciences quite simply explore, farther than. is usually done, the immense realm of the Visible and the Invisible, still so rich in mysteries . And Occultism sums up and binds into one whole this super-science traduced by many learned men or honest educated people because it upsets those who are content with University manuals, or because it has often been exploited by tricksters and charlatans . But was it Christ's fault that the Temple was defiled by "traders " ? Is it the fault of the chemist if a scamp becomes a poisoner ? Is it the fault of Occultism if there are false horoscopes and cheating fortunetellers ? One of the merits of the present book, I hasten to point out, is that it carefully distinguishes between the true, the possible, and the more or less magic trickeries quoted simply by way of reference . After having read it I think the " distinguo " necessary between arguments and clap-trap will have been established . First of all then let us know what Occultism really is . When we know that we may still keep on the defensive, and even resist its teaching, for Criticism insists on its rights, and Intelligence varies according to temperament ; but we no longer smile . And that is one point gained . A second point . Occultism is worth studying . Not only is it not childishness reduced to formulae, but it is a real science which has been explored by hundreds of great minds, true scholars, lucid and cultured seekers, conscientious experimenters, serious writers . I am

INTRODUCTION 16 anxious to reassure the reader, in this connection, as to the reliability of the information of this encyclopaedia, which is not a mere compilation consisting of the compressing of a dozen or so of old books bought second-hand . I have seen the piles-and I may say the hundredsof volumes consulted by the author and signed by the most respected and best known names in this particular Pantheon : Papus, Leon Denis, Eliphas L6vi, Jollivet-Castelot, Gabriel Delanne, de Rochas, Myers, Annie Besant, Barlet, Chouasnard, Pierre Piobb, Johanny Bricaut, Ely Star, Desbarolles, Durville, Rem, Gastin, Jagot-I omit some and I forget many and these not the least important . References also load up the foot of more than one page . And I make the following observation :There is a catalogue by Albert Caillet, called Bibliographical Manual of Psychical and Occult Sciences, in three volumes, containing each more than six hundred pages of two columns, and which contains only the title and a summary of the subject matter of the books published on these questions . It bears date, I believe, of 1912, and names about twelve thousand volumes . To-day this number must be nearing twenty thousand ; it is surely a sign of a preoccupation from which we can at least draw the conclusion that if such subjects had no intellectual and even scientific interest, they would be allowed to fall into forgetfulness (whereas they arouse an increasing interest) at a period when less and less time is spent on simple curiosity . And if I add that hundreds of well known men-doctors, eminent writers, scholars, professors-have pledged their intellectual honour by signing the greater part of these articles, it will be agreed, I am sure, that Occultism-the renascence of which during the last half-century remains undeniable-has in fact entered for good and all into our spiritual field. It has entered this field so thoroughly that it has established a connection with official science on more than one side . The University has not yet dared-and Leon Denis strongly complains of it-to open to students the field of high Hermetic sciences . But already experimental psychism shows increasingly the work of men whose signatures are followed by learned titles and degrees . Already an International Metapsychical Institute, founded by Dr. Gelay, at present under the direction of Dr. Osty, has almost the standing of an Academy . 1 Already the Sorbonne and many serious halls are open to lectures on sciences long believed to be more or less demoniac . The door is opening . . . . The whole of Occultism will one day pass through . And I do not mention other private organisations of the greatest interest : The Institute of Dr. Berillon, rue Saint-Andr6-des-Arts, that of L. Gastin, for Psycho-Physics, rue des Aqennins, etc.

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES III

It will pass through because, old as the World and sure to last as long, it renews itself from generation to generation ; it adapts itself ; it is alive . Therefore it will live, whenas orthodoxies rebellious of rejuvenation risk death . We will now cast a glance at its history . It will shew us the birth of its Tradition and how great minds of old made it majestic, kept it alive and embellished it, how great minds of the present day refine it, reduce it to its essentials, and infuse it with perpetuity . Under other names, no doubt (but what matter?), Occultism is contemporary with the first human musings, and the son at once of the eye which observes and of the mental process which compares and deduces. When the keepers of flocks, as soon as the taming of certain animals and a coherent trend of thought were known, studied the stars and mused over the various events and discoveries of . their own existence, saw therein many connections and analogies, and inferred therefrom certain beneficent or. maleficent influences of the stars on the Earth ; when, later, men still more watchful and more intelligent, tried to formulate a complete scheme of Nature and to draw up a science founded on observation and intuition, mistaken here, guessing aright there, they were already producing Occultism in so far as they studied phenomena by this sixth sense of which we spoke just now, and which they were careful not to neglect, so as to place at the service of the desire for knowledge all possible resources of the physical and intellectual being. But it is mainly at the time when specialised philosophers built up their knowledge in a monument the door of which they kept carefully closed to the layman, that Occultism, under the synonymous name at that time of Esoterism, deserved its name, occultum in Latin meaning hidden, esoterikos in Greek meaning inner. Under esoteric section, writes Johanny Bricaut in a short pamphlet giving the essential of what it is necessary to know so as not to talk nonsense in speaking of occult sciences,' the Alexandrian and Greek philosophers understood a kind of class selected from amongst their best pupils, and in which they gave their most abstract teaching which the ordinary disciples would not have been able to understand . This esoterism survived in Christianity during the first centuries by means of initiates who, under the name of Gnostics, gave considerable support to the new religion . But it must be remembered that what was special here to mediterranean countries, was general in all . inhabited parts of the globe . Everywhere where there were Magi there was secret (or esoteric) teaching for selected disciples, public . (exoteric) teaching for the layman . 1 First Elements of Occultiwm (Librairie du Magnetiame, 23 rue Saint-Merry) .

INTRODUCTION 17 As regards Christianity, as it became popularised, the layman contented himself with that part which was exoteric, legendary, easy to grasp, and the number of initiates, who took the spirit instead of the letter, keeping the true sense of the sublime teaching (also given, it will be observed, esoterically, by means of parables, by Christ) tended to diminish . The masses took the upper hand and in their turn had their priests, superficial like themselves . The initiates were persecuted, hid themselves, formed secret societies . During the Middle Ages, when the name " Occultism " first arose, they added to their doctrine all kinds of profound teaching drawn from the Gnosis, from Magic, from the Kabbala, sometimes no doubt introducing into it some individual conceit. They were easily charged with heresy and witchcraft . The Church, which had built for itself an official gospel science assuredly different from the true one, could not endure them . For which reason, in order to hide the secret science, the surviving tradition, they used a language particular in its style, its writing and its signs, a secret language apparent in the " grimoires," but this stratagem did not always enable them to escape the vindictiveness of the Church . These initiates, these occultists of the Middle Ages are numerous, known in spite of all, for many of them all the same succeeded in rising to importance, at least by work of other kind . Of such are Reuchlin, . Of such were Agrippa, Paracelsus, Cardan, Postel, Fludd, etc . in the Seventeenth Century, Van Helmont, Silesius, Poiret, in the Eighteenth Century, Swedenborg, from whom derive the greater part of the Societies occultists and Illuminati of the Nineteenth Century . And then, little by little, Occultism, if I may say so, decanted itself, reached those high syntheses adorned by the new masters whose names I mentioned just now, and to whom must be added Stanislas de Gualta, Peladan and other " modern Magi," whilst on the one hand arose the Spiritualism of an Allan Kandec, the Theosophy of a Blavatsky, particularly imbued with a moral idea coloured by religiosity, on the other hand a group of men desirous of giving to the renewed Tradition an entirely scientific guise . As for myself, I think I observe a triple current in Occultism, arising from the best part of the three great human bodies of the world : the spiritualist current, in the main American, the theosophical current coming from the ancient East, the European current with realistic leanings . And how this accords with temperaments, here more attracted by the extraordinary (Spiritism was born in America towards the middle of the Nineteenth Century) there more attracted by mysticism and morality (Theosophy arose out of the religious ideas of India), elsewhere more attracted by exactitude ! . . . What would be most interesting, what is to be desired, and what the author of this book seems to look to in the end, is an harmonious fusion of all these tendencies into a contemporary

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Occultism which would be truly universal, and like a new and definitive religion for a Humanity which in other matters is on the road to internationalism . IV We shall in a moment reach the main divisions of Occultism, but from the general point of view of its utility we may already observe its triple aspect-moral, therapeutic, divinatory-an aspect which it has always definitely had . 1 To be Moral Occultism rightly claims by preaching the constant perfecting of the Individual, both from the point of view of his intelligence, of his self-knowledge, and from the point of view of his behaviour . It rightly defends itself against the twofold accusation of official Science and of the Church, which shows it as deforming the mind and the heart . Whether we believe the spiritualistic or theosophical doctrines or not, it is impossible to pretend that their theories are immoral . And then the hypothesis of successive lives, so rich in arguments as to conduct, and which at all times formed part of the occult mind, in the West as well as in the East, and which might perhaps be one of the bases of the universal philosophical agreement of which I spoke above, is one of the most noble, most just and most consoling hypotheses ever known . In any case in all the serious occult books (I do not allude to the very particular studies and to the very narrow realm which relates to Black Magic and to Satanism, which are anyhow so obsolete) I have never found anything but a magnificent effort at spiritual uplifting . To be Therapeutic Occultism also claims (in spite of the Hippocrates who are unbelieving or jealous of its competition), and claims to relieve and heal physical ills in its own way . As I am less familiar with this section, I do not insist, but simply think that if it is right in other respects, it very possibly is also right in this respect . Has a sufficient number of facts been checked ? Have statistics been drawn up ? Everything depends upon this, for here it is no longer a question of discussion, but of proof. Let us confess it, it is deplorable that the Medical Profession, instead of fighting, mocking, having recourse to the Courts, where we have seen cured patients give their testimony in favour of the " healers " against the doctors who attacked and had not cured (enormous paradox!) does not seek a common ground so as to admit into its fold, after a normal examination and serious enquiry, colleagues who have for their diploma a past of successes . Divinatory finally . This is the part which most people deny in public through fear of ridicule, although many secretly consult seers and Pythonesses of the palm or the card . It is also the part which most i In addition, of course, to its philosophical aspect .

INTRODUCTION 19 interests a public more easily lured by the trouble of its little affairs of the heart or of cash than by the need of higher thought . It is equally the delicate point on which it is necessary to throw light and make distinctions, and round which the author of this book has collected the largest number of instructive pages . After having gone through these there will be no more room for doubt, provided we understand correctly . And the point it is necessary thoroughly to understand and to remember is this : that the divinatory arts are deductive or intuitive. Deductive : Astrology, Physiognomony, Chiromancy, Graphology . Intuitive : Clairvoyance, Cartomancy, Oniromancy. The deductive divinatory arts are the safer, being founded on observation, demonstrable, in one word scientific in the ordinary meaning of the word . 1 The others require more reserve, but they have in their favour so considerable a number of proofs that we are compelled to take them into account. Thus two points of view suggest themselves : the first is that we must look upon prophecies rather as possibilities than as certainties . The second is that we must take prophecies as being subject, after all, to free will. The Ancients believed too much in a blind, immovable Destiny ; hence their idea of Fate, although at the same time we must not forget their old saying : astra declinant, non necessitant . The stars predispose, incline, but do not compel . And is not the hermetic commentary on Leaf VI of the Taroc, Liberty or Compulsion ? Besides Fatalism is confined to the East . If it were real it would bind the life of each one into a rigid mould from which no one could escape ; it would paralyse every effort, every initiative, every activity . As the contrary is common sense and current experience, it would seem futile to dwell at length on a theoretical discussion of this subject . And besides it is not certain that the Koran is at bottom so very fatalistic, seeing that it counsels him who wants to go to sleep to hobble his horse ! If fate were inescapable, would Mohammed tell his disciples to beware of theft ? It seems to me that Fatalism is a frame of mind rather than a metaphysical dogma . The Westerns have reduced Fatalism to Determinism, thus softening an iron law. Determinism, like Fatalism and according to reason (the profound reason of Occultism, as will be seen) teaches the inescapable concatenation of phenomena and events . But it leaves to man, facing the two roads, the choice, which is common sense . But the choice once made, the chain of consequences follows inevitably, unless, at cross-road after cross-road, the will intervenes in order to bring back 1 But do not all sciences go in for prophesying ? Meteorologists, doctors, etc ., practise a deductive divinatory art based on their observations .

20 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Fate into the desired road ; and what gives the illusion of the inescapable is the fact that very few beings react, not without surprise, and not without lament that destiny should follow a course contrary to their desires . And many more put " on the back " of what they call chance the ill luck which comes to them . In truth there is the unexpected in life, but never chance . The Occultist denies chance as well as the fatalistic ananke. He only believes that from his birth a kind of impetus is given to man by natural forces, some of them astral, others due to heredity, others due (if the theory of reincarnation is correct) to his former yieldings to good or evil-and that at the same time man receives a will (differing, it is true, in its intensity in various individuals, but which may be educated), a will capable of modifying his fate . To look for the signs of this destiny, that is the task of the sciences of deductive divination . Hence their potent interest . But since it is not forbidden to study phenomena and the future still more deeply, since it is a very noble use of the mind to seek to fathom the riddle of the universe, the Occultist is also interested in the intuitive divinations which are so rich in extraordinary proofs, in the personal psychism the study of which gives excellent results, in the arcana of Magic and Hermetism, in mysterious forces of all kinds, in one word, which demand an attention which the superficial mind is not willing to give . V Let us now put some order into these ideas ; let us sort them ; let us distinguish the various branches of this enormous and many thousand years old baobab of an Occultism, the roots of which go down to the earliest strata of human thought . It would be difficult and idle to ask here for a chronological order of birth. The occult sciences were born quasi-simultaneously in the night of ages where their respective origins are lost . Some no doubt have become systematised in modern times, such as Physiognomony in the Eighteenth Century, Chiromancy and Graphology in the Nineteenth . But whilst in the judgment of the Polytechnician Choisnard truly scientific Astrology is still in course of evolution, although in its traditional form it goes back to the highest antiquity, yet the reading of the character and of fate by means of facial characteristics and of the hand is very old . But it should always be remembered-and I said above how alive is Occultism-that in reality some of its chapters are new, such as for instance spiritualism, hexagrammism, psycho-magnetic therapy, psycho-physics, hypnotism, etc . I say new, but better would be " renewed," for the Ancients knew many things which appear to us

21 INTRODUCTION new only because for a long time they were lost or badly understood among the secret knowledge of yore . 1 It is therefore without assigning to them any date of origin that I shall make a rapid survey of the occult sciences, beginning with Astrology. And if I begin with Astrology, this is not due to the mere affectation of a demonstrator defending a theory often derided and which collides with the incredulity of a mass of persons who have no other excuse than their total ignorance of it . It is due to the certainty that it is one of the keystones of Occultism, as I shall try to explain in what follows . Yes, Astrology is still derided to such an extent that the mere word raises the laughter of many, bringing back, recalling the famous fable, the old man with long beard, gown covered with stars, and pointed cap, fixing on the sky his horoscopic telescope . We must admit that charlatans have considerably discredited it, as also the authors and publishers of various almanacs and pamphlets ridiculous as much by their covers as by their context, lowering and traducing as they please a science mainly empirical but yet of the greatest interest. To be sure astronomers in the main also deny it . Let us answer them at once with Paul Flambart, 2 a mathematician of the first order who also is no stranger to Astronomy, that Astrology is an experimental science : it is not only demonstrated, it is proved . And its proofs, in thousands, abound in the course of the centuries . It would therefore not require a theory as its basis, it would require it no more than the fact that light is brought by the sun . All the same for our own satisfaction we shall sketch out such a theory . It is summed up in two words : astral influence. Is there, or is there not, an astral influence on things, on persons, therefore on the inhabitants of this Earth ? That is the whole question . If ' :here is none, Astrology crumbles . If there is, then the utmost that could be done would be to criticise the interpretation thereof by Astrology, only to try and correct this ; and then it becomes impossible to understand the ostracism which it suffers at the hands of the Academies, even of the dictionaries, all of which define it as " a pretended science which, &c . . . ." and of the University which omits it from its programme . For this influence does exist ; and the strangest thing is that no one thinks of denying it, whenas by the most curious of contradictions the science which studies it is rejected . Does any one dream in fact of doubting the influence of the sun, in the course of the twelve months of the year, on the flowering of plants, the reproduction of animals, the health of man, of doubting I Pseudonym of Mr. Paul Chouasnard . ' See the appendices .

22 THE OCCULT SCIENCES the influence of the moon on the tides, on the menstruation of women, on plants ? The peasants know all about this, be assured of it . The astronomers themselves recognise the connection which exists between the solar rhythm and the meteorological phenomena of the earth. One of the most rebellious of them, the Abbes Moreux, the head of the Observatory of Bourges, writes that the electric fluid emanating from the sun must exercise a certain influence on our nervous system ; he observes that children are more irritable during times of solar superactivity, and that certain patients are then liable to attacks of rheumatism, neuralgia, even anger . Better still, he goes so far as to think that this aggravation of the solar forces may possibly influence diplomats and provoke armed conflicts, and he draws up a curve of these solar excesses and of their correspondences, as regards France, with its periods of war ! 1 Is not this pure Astrology ? The Abbe Moreux, who likewise accepts the influence of the moon (it would be difficult for him to put it in issue) thus finds himself following Saint Augustin who did not deny heavenly influences on the exterior variations of the body ; Saint Thomas who admitted these influences even on the faculties of intellect and volition ; the great Eliphas Levi (Abbey Constans) who wrote this remarkable paragraph :" What is the Universe if not a group of magnetic globes which attract and repel each other ? The beings produced by these different globes (for the idea that the planets are inhabited is very old) share in their peculiar magnetism, which is balanced by the universal magnetism . The spectral analysis of Bunsen has made it possible to distinguish the classes of magnets, and has thus given a scientific basis to the ancient intuitions of Astrology . The various planets of the solar system therefore necessarily exercise a magnetic influence on our globe and on the living beings which inhabit it . We drink in all the aromas of Heaven mixed with the spirit of the earth and born under the influence of the various stars .' 12 Thus Christians need not fear that they are sinning by studying Astrology, for they have Fathers of the Church with them, and numerous priests devote themselves to it, for this science is in no way in conflict with the Faith . 3 And as has just been seen, there is no reason whatever for rejecting the influence of the planets if we accept that of the Sun and the Moon . The excuse of distance would not be an excuse in principle, for in Astronomy the law of attraction rules over formidable distances . Nor would the excuse of error suffice by reason of the fact ' Article in the Revue de l'Ouest, October, 1920. • The Grand Arcane . • The astrologer Luc Gauric was bishop and theologian .

In a curious letter from Canon Brettes to M . Choisnard, which the latter quotes in Influence astrale et probabilitds, it is stated expressly that the Pope has no hostile feelings whatever against Astrology .

INTRODUCTION 23 that Astrology was ignorant of Uranus and Neptune although it felt their existence . A science is not suppressed by the fact that new elements are discovered in it ; it is for us to study these and to find out their functions . But the reality of astral influence is not a mere peculiarity which may be observed here and there (such as for instance the connection observed in India between lunar phases and fever crises) . It results above all from the great universal harmony which has convinced us from the beginning that a law of solidarity exists between things just as a law of concatenation exists between phenomena . This law of solidarity, Ely Star tells us, exists as well above as below humanity, as well among the stars as among the lower regions . Man, the synthesis of creation, reflects his Universe to which the Earth belongs . The microcosm which he is finds itself inevitably influenced by the macrocosm with which he remains in sympathy . If it is objected that persons born at the same instant ought then to have the same character and the same destiny, we shall reply in the first instance that in fact they have points of character and therefore a possible future in common ; but that other influences also (heredity, education, will, etc .), are added to the astral influences, thus modifying them sufficiently so as to vary their destinies . Astrology in fact shows only the natural inclinations of the person and their consequences . It is the science of causes, not that of invincible necessities . One word more : astral influence is at bottom only a vibratory mode comparable with the influences of heat, light, electricity, X-rays, etc. Our organism, which (we must not forget it) has an immense sensitiveness, is in correspondence with this particular magnetic fluid . Calculate the magnetic state of the sky at the moment of a birth, deduce therefrom a horoscopic scheme, such is in short the justification and the method of Astrology. But is it possible thus to arrive at an irrefutable accuracy? Let us exaggerate nothing . The matter is very delicate . It would not, theoretically, be impossible, by ascertaining with meticulous care this state of the sky, the exact place, at the moment of birth, of each planet, and calculating not only the strength of the influences, but the combinations and resultants which they form by uniting or repelling each other according to the aspects among themselves of the globes which produce them. In reality only approximations are arrived at . This is why scientists like Selva, Caslant, Chouasnard, etc., bring in the theory of frequencies and the calculation of probabilities . In their opinion and in that of their competitors who want to replace an occult or divinatory Astrology (called forensic) by an Astrology modern, resolutely and definitely scientific, without at the same time denying the sound basis of Tradition, it would be necessary to try

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 24 and ascertain by sound statistics the correspondence of astronomical factors and human faculties, and thus replace coincidences, however numerous, by law. And when a vast list shall have been drawn up composed of comparative statistics of non-arbitrary frequencies, we shall end by knowing thoroughly the general and the individual influences of the various stars . This list is to some extent still in its first pages . I cannot go into it more lengthily, nor into the law of astral heredity, and I refer to the twenty or so volumes which Mr . Chouasnard alone has written on his astrological ideas . Happy to be able to state that, defended by minds of his quality, and provided that it perfects his methods, Astrology in any case remains a very real science, I declare that it is impossible to erase it from the table on which are inscribed its sisters, Astronomy and Meteorology. Another very interesting method of raising and resolving the astrological problem without passing through formidable calculations and trying cabbalistic means (as is done by Ely Star) is to seek by experiment -or by availing ourselves simply of tradition and the labours which have modernised it-what is known as the astral sign-manual . Morphological sign-manuals correspond with psychological characteristics. And this brings us to Physiognomony. But there are two methods (which however support each other) of practising Physiognomony . One, entirely analytical, consists of the accumulation of isolated observations, and their classification into summary tables ; the other synthetic, based on the general principles of Occultism and deriving from Astrology. Of the first method I shall speak later on . But let me state at once that the second method arrives at the same results, which shows clearly (and this ends my pro-astrological demonstration) that everything takes place as if Astrology were demonstrable, even supposing it were not so. Yes, there does exist on every thing, on every being, a sign-manual of this mysterious Unknown whom we call the Creator, Nature, Astral Influx, or in a more moving word the Unknown God . Yes, there do exist human types which can be classified otherwise than in accordance with Geography, classified according to a law occult, undeniable, formulated and proved since olden times . Whether we apply the purely physiological physiognomony of Lavater, renewed by Gastin, or the planetary typology of Ledos, the morphology of the present day, the astrological chiromancy of Desbarolles or the experimental chirology of Rem, the usual graphology or intuitive synthesis, the results are the same : we arrive at a sign-manual which may without objection be called astral, were it only for the sake of simplicity of language But I repeat, this simplicity is the expression itself of astrological truth .

INTRODUCTION 25 . And this sign-manual is, in the words of Decrespe, the exact total and the proportion of the various planetary influences received during the time of pregnancy . So that at the moment of birth we receive a particular vibratory tonality, we are formed in accordance with certain physical and psychic activities . And it is this which constitutes our Destiny. The theories of heredity and of regionalism (influence of latitude, climate, geology, etc.), do not suffice, however true and important they may be, to explain this sign-manual which, as I have already said, fits in quite well with, free-will, as the will is also a part of the innate gifts and inheritances . Do these inheritances proceed from one or more previous lives ? Occultism says yes. I do not here attempt to solve this important problem ; I merely draw attention to its potent interest . And how this sign-manual is also found in the whole of Nature ! Think, for instance, with Stanislas de Guaita 1 how the sight of the octopus, the scorpion, the crocodile produces a premonitory horror, how the felines and the birds of prey bear the stamp of ferocity, but a ferocity which is not impressed with the manifest impurity of the spider, and possesses the kind of nobility with which the warrior tries to adorn himself . 2 Consider the appearance of truth of the greater part of poisonous plants, mushrooms, 3 the datura with its livid flowers, the henbane with its repulsive scent, the euphorbia with its corrosive sap, the hemlock with its suspicious rustiness . . . . Strindberg has written a superb page on the moth called Death's-head, the caterpillar of which does in fact feed on the toxic daturin and solanin of poisonous plants, on certain vegetation which actually smells of death (such as arum and orchis) and attract insects which feed on carrion . There are even minerals which sometimes bear the " sign-manual " were it only the hard silex and the friable grit, but better still, showing sometimes bizarre shapes, portraits, landscapes engraved on the flat or deeply, and for which some occultists claim, in the case of the " Gamali s," that this is not always the result of simple chance .' This universal sign-manual which Paracelsus himself has eloquently described in his so savoury mediaeval French, he and others have tried to study it so as to rediscover the fundamental principles of the silent and sublime tongue of the creating word . This sign-manual, proof 1

La Clef de la Magie noire .

• Especially the ancient warrior, who believed more strongly that he had a sacred mission .

Observe in this connection how the sculptor has always tried to indicate " warlike nobility ." • No doubt it will be objected that the difficulty of distinguishing good from bad mushrooms invalidates the idea which in addition is only dealt with here very summarily . But it is for the expert that the poisonous mushroom has a " nasty appearance " which he, more observing than the layman, discovers easily . • I refer to the very curious note on Gamahes which will be found in this book .

26 THE OCCULT SCIENCES of the analogy of the appearance of beings and their deep nature, it is in short the actual basis of Astrology and its substitutes . VI And that is why, on consideration, there is in the arrangement of an exposition of the occult sciences, a certain order which the author of the present Encyclopaedia has observed : Astrology at the base ; then on the astral sign-manual, three systems for its discovery in Man, (a) by Physiognomony, (b) by Chiromancy which at bottom is but physiognomony applied to the hand ; (c) by Graphology, which is the result of the chiromantic sign-manual . These four sciences constitute as I have said, the deductive divinatory arts . If it is possible to claim with Mme . de Thebes, Mme . Fraya, Rem, and other chiromancers, that in order to read the signs of the hand it is in no way necessary to have any connection with Astrology, if the graphologers do not even use one word of the astrological vocabulary (of which, however, there is a trace in purely physiological chiromancy), this is quite correct so far as results are concerned . It is no less true that the Occultist is not wrong either who, with a higher, more synthetic mind, connects all these sciences among themselves, and even with the intuitive divinatory sciences, and even with Alchemy, Magic and the metaphysical sciences, for thus he obtains a vast and marvellous whole, constructed like a spacious religious doctrine-a true cathedral where harmony reigns from the solid pillars of the base to the most delicate sculptures of the summit. For the Occultist in fact the Universe is summed up in Man, the macrocosm governs the microcosm, the astral sign-manual is inscribed everywhere-on the face, on the hand, in the writing-the secret and sacred tongue exerting itself to say what must be said when we approach whichever part we like of the vast domain of knowledge . We can therefore now in all logic talk of physiognomony . Physiognomony is not only the study of a being through its physiognomy, as the layman believes, although the etymology is clear (physis-nature ; gnomon-who knows), but really the study of a being through the whole of its outward appearance ; from which it would seem to follow that Chiromancy is included in it in principle, although it has been detached from it owing to its importance . Is it necessary for me now to justify Physiognomony ? It does not in fact enjoy the bad reputation of its mother Astrology . It may be currently observed . Who amongst us is not a physiognomonist when he says of some one that he has a fine " or " a nasty " head in the ethical sense of the word ? And do we not in the same way practise

INTRODUCTION 27 instinctive astrology when we speak of people " who are born under a lucky star " or " who always seem to be in the moon " ? Who in short has not amused himself in the same way by studying passers-by in order to try and guess from their appearance their soul, their social position ? According to evidence there are aristocratic faces (apart from any title of nobility) and plebeian faces, the mug of the drunkard and the pretty face of the born amoureuse, the healthy face of the active man, the mask of the brigand, the majestic type, the face of the judge, the domestic, the soldier, the priest, the scholar . It is true that the dress helps a little ; but most certainly the character leaves its mark on the features. It was only necessary to study, to classify these outward marks in order to constitute a science . The idea was old, but the system had to be organised, and this is what the famous Lavater attempted . But where Lavater, Delestre and other physio-psychologists stop, the Occultist does not stop, and saturated with Astrology, he in his turn says :" These signs-manual of the stars, you notice them without using the word ; you say that a man is choleric after you have examined his face ; I say that he is so because he was born under the malef cent influence of Mars . In short we are agreed, but you are satisfied with the observation, whereas I go back to the causes . And is it not much more interesting to try and guess that the subject will be of a choleric disposition if he is born under such or other particular magnetic aspect of the Sky ? Not only is this more interesting, but this alone will be useful, for if to the birth certificate there were added a horoscopic certificate, the educational task of the parents would be rendered considerably easier. Thus, since, I repeat, everything takes place in accordance with astrological data, even if they are not demonstrable, may we not also accept the theory, intelligent, practical, of the planetary typology It may be admitted without mysticism, as was done by Paul Jagot who drew up the series of these planetary types in accordance with modernised tradition, and pointed out the correspondence of the morphological signs with the physiological, pathological, psychological, chirological and graphological characteristics, adding prophecies deduced therefrom as to the normal destiny of these types . 1 And coming back to the pleasure, of which I spoke just now, of watching people, I will confess that there is nothing more attractive than to sit down on the terrace of some cafe and to lose oneself in this occupation, to analyse by a glance, which with practice becomes quick and sure, the passers-by whose revelation is clearer still if they in ' See his different books : Traite des Sciences Occultee et de la Magie pratique, Lee Margea revelatrices du Destin, etc .

(Drouin, publisher.)

28 THE OCCULT SCIENCES turn stop at a table near yours. Short soliloquies arise in you, such as the following :" That is a curious head, all in segments of circles . A face white, dull, insipid as the star of the night . Round and protruding eyes, stamped with melancholy, dreaminess . The mouth is small, badly closed, with thick lips . He speaks with a soft and neutral voice . His movements are indolent and confused . He seems passive and resigned, must be impressionable, ideologue, indistinct, original . He is imaginative, weak, timid. I bet he likes travelling, that he has fits of temper. He bears the sign-manual of the lunar type ." But the Selenian passes by . Following him is a hefty muscular chap, long in the body and short in the hip, square of face, with receding forehead, sharp nose, thin lips :" A Martian type I What a hard look . He does not wear, but deserves, a military coat. His life must consist of a perpetual strategy, whether he is a business man or head of a department somewhere . I judge him to be combative, disciplined or stern . I fear he is passionate, perhaps violent, and I am inclined to pity his wife if he has one . I am sure he has a firm, wilful handwriting with the is crossed heavily . If I looked at his hand I should perhaps find the sign of a violent death ." The son of the planet of war walks quickly. A woman follows him . She is the Venus type, not because she is a woman and pretty, for there are Venus types without taking beauty, but because she is all in elliptical curves . Her oval face, pink on a white ground, is lit up by well shaped eyes under eyebrows of a pure line . " What a classic nose, very slightly aquiline, and what a crimson mouth with such a frank Cupid's bow which calls for a kiss. Not big, but well proportioned . A fairly intelligent air mirrors an amiable and entirely sensual voluptuousness . And her fingers are pointed . Some artist without doubt. Ah 1 there she goes into a neighbouring theatre by a private door." Truly these are well defined astral types . It is lucky if they pass before my eyes, for I know they are rare . Nearly always there are complications. It is possible for an expert in analyses to disentangle certain dual ascendeneies : here a martio-mercurian type, of energetic mien and yet supple and graceful, with numerous and quick gestures ; there a jupiterio-apollonian type combining a noble mental equilibrium with aesthetic dash ; there a saturno-venus type, gentle like a woman and serious like a scholar . But whatever it may be, everything is marked, everything is signed . And he who practises this game of recognising a life in passing, possesses the power and the ability of regulating his own life well .

INTRODUCTION

29

VII As I have said, Chiromancy is, for the Occultist, the astral sign-manual contained in the hand . But it is not necessary to believe in Astrology in order to believe in Chiromancy. In the same way as Chouasnard wants to arrive at a scientific Astrology, so Henri Rem wants, and he says it himself, to " disoccult " Chirology . He is entitled to do so . We are entitled, while respecting his method and admiring his work, to remain in our doctrinal atmosphere which arrives at the same conclusions, but maintains the link of harmony above pointed out . Let us note, however, that the disocculted Chirology keeps various astrological terms, such as the mounts of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury or Venus, the line of the Sun, the plain of Mars, etc . It is true that it looks upon these merely as words for which it is inclined to substitute those of mounts of the index, the middle finger, the ring finger, the lines of health, of intuition, of fate, etc . All that has no importance . The main thing is that Chirology (which includes the traditional Chiromancy and Chirognomony) has to its credit, just as has Astrology, a considerable number of proved observations which, even if they do not rest on a valid theory, make it an actual science of great utility . But there is a chiromantic theory, whether we base it on Occultism as being applied astrology, whether we take as its foundation, with Desbarolles, the animal electricity which is peculiarly noticeable in the hand, or relate it with L . Gastin to psycho-physics . Once more, one thing only counts-the amazing frequency of the correspondence between the chiromantic elements and the temperament, the fate of the subject . This frequency has been observed for centuries, and constitutes owing to its repeated experience an empirical proof of almost indisputable value . Wishing to have all my doubts removed as to this science still so little shown to the open daylight, though considerably followed in the silence of the consulting room, I called some time ago on one of its best known exponents-Mme . Fraya. Having questioned her as to her art, she told me that she did not care for theories, and was satisfied with the readings, so numerous in her own experience that. they were for her almost a certainty . What seemed to me extremely interesting in this woman of great position and of the highest intelligence was that she admitted to me that she was continually advancing, owing to her specialisation in the matter . Thus it is that she found out in the end the relativity off the sign of length in the life line, where by tradition, length was looked to alone as index for the length or shortness of life, and she also found the importance of the colour which in the same hand can change so as to foretell serious events ; it is in this manner that she foresaw, shortly before the War, the imminence

30 THE OCCULT SCIENCES of a great catastrophe when she was astounded by the unusual colour of the many palms which she then had before her eyes . If I quote these details, it is in order to show that Chiromancy also is alive and not petrified in a hackneyed collection of rules of which the memory of the ordinary fortune-teller might too easily make use . Great powers of observation, judgment, memory, intuition, and a long experience are required to become expert . Of this expert knowledge a woman like Mme . Fraya who is consulted (I whisper it very low, don't go and repeat it!) by persons very highly placed in the political world . . . and by others' gave a formal proof on the day when she took part without fear in the following experiment She was asked to examine a certain number of schoolchildren who in turn held out their hands to her through an opening in a curtain which hid the faces whose too expressive features might too easily have allowed her to list them psychologically . Purposely the most diverse types of children had been mixed, gentle, nervous, studious, stupid, vicious, intelligent, lazy . The master himself knew them thoroughly, and noted down the accounts of the chiromancer who rapidly analysed each hand, saying what this examination revealed to her as to the temperament and the abilities of the subject ; and she was right in the proportion of 87 to 100 . After this it is difficult to believe that an article in the Code forbids, so I am told, the exercise of Chiromancy under threat of punishment, just like a swindle . I confront the judges with the testimony of facts . And I confront the sceptics with this demonstration of Henri Rem If science is a co-ordinated collection of exact observations, of actual facts relating to a principal subject, observations and facts being linked by a general theory which must account for all the observed phenomena, if it is by observation, experiments, comparison and analogy that scientific experience is gained, then we have the right to say that Chirology is a science, since its deductions flow from experience acquired, from the examination and the classification of the facts so that it is possible to establish a correlation between the signs and the facts and to draw therefrom conclusions both inductive and deductive . This is all right as far as it goes . But what may be brought up against Rem and his so remarkable book 2 is that as a matter of fact he keeps only to experience, to correlations and deductions . I see 1 Anyway I need not be more discreet than the interviewers . I find in P8ychica the account of a visit by M . Gaudelette to Mme Frays where she herself recalls among a thousand other recollections, that she was able to foretell to M . Malvy, Deputy, his rise to ministerial rank, the scandal in which he was to be involved in about his fortieth year, his exile and his returnto Bolo Pasha (but here in a vision, at a meal given by him), his fall and his tragic deathto the sister of William II in May, 1914, the war and its final result for the German Emperor, etc . Evidently therefore this chiromancer is intuitive and possesses gifts of clairvoyance . ' What is Revealed by the Hand . (Publisher, Albin Michel.)

INTRODUCTION 31 in it no trace of induction . He does not go back to the causes . How could he do so otherwise than by connecting Chirology with Astrology ? By " disocculting " as he says the science which he loves, he robs it of its head, of its explanation . That is why I think that Desbarolles is superior to him . But Desbarolles 1 is confused, disconnected, full of hors-d'oeuvres often long and unnecessary. Modernised, cleared of dead wood, condensed he would be perfect. This it is that men like M. Muchery and M . Jagot are trying to do, and it is the spirit which governs that part of the present book which is devoted to Chiromancy . VIII To defend Chiromancy either from its physiognomonic or its divinatory point of view was not heroic . To defend Graphology is almost a commonplace . There is here still less witchcraft or demonism ! It. is so simple although delicate, so sure although disdained by unpardonable ignorance and impenitent scepticism ! And yet Graphology has become actually official in the hands off experts called in to judge forgeries in writing. How can it be denied in its principles and its conclusions ? The handwriting, it is the hand translating-or betraying-the soul, disclosing its character and consequently its abilities . By the side of the astral sign-manual, or rather as the result of this sign-manual, the graphic sign-manual . Never do they belie each other . Why do so few people consult it for the secret of the temperament of their children, or their relatives, or their connections ? And if this is a true and eminently practical science, why is it not listed in the University programmes, and especially in those of the High Schools ? Is it not worth as much as arithmetic or history ? If it helps to govern our own life to the extent, which is considerable, in which it is connected with others, is it not as necessary as the knowledge of the extraction of cubic roots, or that of the Pharaohs of the twenty-second Dynasty ? I was speaking of High Schools . I am surprised that they do not teach this Graphology 2 which would be so useful to the masters to enable them to distinguish the qualities and faults of their pupils . Thus little by little generations would be formed who are quick to appreciate the qualities of others . How much public morality would benefit from this, as the triumph of evil is mainly due to the hypocrisy of the wicked and the simplicity of their victims ! And this further point occurs to me as following on the four great deductive divinatory sciences :-Would it not be an excellent thing, 1

The Iliysteries of the Hand . (Publisher, Gamier.) And also psycho-physics, so helpful to good teaching . '4

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by means of a proper horoscope, of a well carried out chirological inspection, of a thorough graphological analysis, the whole rounded off by a good medical examination, made by a doctor who if possible shall be a physiognomonist, to draw up a psycho-prophetic portrait' of the youth who will soon go out into life ? Thus his parents, often blinded by affection, would obtain a detailed statement of the inclinations, abilities, qualities, chances of success of their child, and could give him the lead most in accord with his temperament . And even if successive portraits were drawn up, from childhood to ripe age, how much better each one would be able to live by stages I Most people are unhappy because they have chosen a life which was not rightly theirs . Here it would be possible to apply scientifically by anticipation the doctrine of Fourier . To know oneself well is the beginning of acting well . Know, says Paul Jagot rightly, that a law of equity presides at each destiny . Desire first of all the sovereign rule of conscience over the instincts, sensibility, intelligence . Attached to the greatest of all earthly good are inseparable perils which only those escape who by their psychic development are in accord with this good. To achieve this harmony means preparing joy for oneself . Occultism, by means of the sciences which we have just considered, helps largely to this end . Ix Now I come to Cards . Now I come to Dreams. Here I lose a little of my assurance. We are in the midst of intuitive, therefore more arbitrary, divinations. And yet here also we are faced with facts which are the more extraordinary because they become less explicable . It is here especially that it would be well to draw up, according to the method of Chouasnard, statistics of probabilities, of frequencies . For after all facts are facts . Speak of Cartomancy in a company, I will not say favourably, but merely sincere and without prejudice . First of all of ten persons eight will confess that they have consultedsecretly-card readers, and six at least will tell you that they have been surprised at the correctness of what was foretold them . Would it be possible to attempt, if not a doctrine, at least an explanation ? I believe myself that a good cartomancer begins by guessing fairly correctly the state of mind of her clients . Being a physiognomist, she guesses from their appearance, their voice, their looks, by questioning them skilfully without their being able to see the drift of her questions which seem so alien to their cares, by drawing attention, for instance, to the meaning of some of the cards which she tosses so carelessly on the table, she guesses their secret desires, she reads them and makes 1 Or psycho-diagnostic . See under chapter on Physiognomony the theories of L . Gastin .

INTRODUCTION 33 deductions as to their past . Something then takes place in the cartomancer, combined of intuition, perhaps clairvoyance, suggestion, which has the result that the client subsequently lets his thoughts travel in the direction of what has been foretold, and unconsciously works towards its fulfilment, whether the prophecy was of good to come or alas ! of ill luck." We touch here upon Magic, of which I shall speak presently, where the power of the word so often has such powerful results . In the result, therefore, it is not so much the meaning of the cards or of the leaves of the Taroc which is of importance, as the state of mind created in the client with respect to the explanations given, and which might be different, arbitrary, and it is this state of mind which induces him to translate into reality the events foretold by the cartomancer . And it may even be asked whether the cartomancer, that is to say the intermediary between the client and the future, is necessary for the purpose of the former discovering the latter . What is known as a result, made alone, in the home, creates a similar state of mind, of autosuggestion, if we believe the words of Desbarolles :-" If you attach faith to a sign of any kind, when you question this sign in your own way it will answer you, and it will answer you correctly if your faith is strong ." The sign, attached to the card or to the Taroc leaf, is in addition the more powerful because it is consecrated by Tradition . And I give to the word " consecrated " its magical sense : because thousands of people have believed in it, faith in it is considerably intensified . Let us also listen to Paul Jagot, and with the more interest as he does not at all seem to be an . Illuminate, credulous, a mystic :-" Since the truth of premonitory phenomena has been ascertained, the greater number of psychists believe that in looking at her Tarocs each diviner magnifies a certain still ill-defined subconscious faculty which allows her to see in the actual state the events which she describes as past, present or to come ." And farther on :-" In the aura of each one of us there are traces of past and present impressions, and of the imminent agencies which are about to influence us ; and so much of this mysterious part of ourselves called unconscious as is actually known, suffices to explain how it is that from the spread-out pack of the cartomancer the client draws exactly those cards which are linked with what is interesting him ." But even more than the theory, it is the experience which justifies, we repeat, Cartomancy, whether it is carried out with the ordinary packs or with the Taroc. It has been practised for six thousand years . Never has the world tired of it. The Great War gave it a fresh impetus . Very many other methods of divination have been allowed to fall into ' See the story told in the chapter " Cartomancy " about the singer of Carmen .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 34 disuse. This one survives . The mystery of this survival has an indisputable value . And Dreams? First of all we must distinguish, as will be seen later on, between emotional dreams, due to some organic affection, and intuitive dreams, without any pathologic cause, these latter only being connected with Oniromancy . Mme. de Thebes, who was so expert in this particular divinatory art, said herself that it was necessary to limit them to ten per cent. at most of the total number of nocturnal visions . But those ten per cent . sufficed to convince her of their premonitory truth, always provided they were not asked for more than a general meaning devoid of details . It is probable that dreams belong to the realm of what Occultists call the outer mind, that is to say the fluid outer cover of the soul, distinct from it, and which never sleeps . They are connected with forebodings . Besides, if in some psycho-physical conditions (such as hypnosis) human beings are capable of foreknowledge, why should not sleep be one of these conditions when premonitory perception manifests itself by means of more or less symbolic images ? X There is yet another most interesting kind of divination : Clairvoyance, whether it is produced by psychometry, the magic mirror and its derivatives, or by the simple contact of the hand . 1 W e know what psychometry is-this extraordinary power possessed by some persons " to perceive the fluid impregnations of astral things, persons and images which remain in the aura of things and of persons ." We cannot argue about it. It is a strange but real phenomenon proved by many experiments made in this connection. Papus explains it thus :" It follows from this phenomenon (tested hundreds of times) that every thing may carry around it an invisibly written history . The same thing applies to the human being . Every one of us carries around him a radiance invisible to the human eye, but perceptible to the trained mind . Inscribed in this radiance in the shape of pictures are the most important results of our thoughts and our actions . In accordance with Tradition this radiance is termed the aura, and there is an aura for every p rinciple . Thus there will be an aura of the physical body, of very small extent, an aura of the astral body, an aura of the mind. It is this last which was recognised by religious tradition surrounding the heads of saints and divinities with halos . It is thanks to this radiance of the three principles of the human being that we can 1 M. de Fleuriere, lengthily studied and tested by Dr . Osly, works in this manner .

INTRODUCTION 35 explain many seemingly strange phenomena, such as sudden sympathies or antipathies, intuitions, and so-called unconscious previsions, etc ." Clairvoyance is also produced, as we have said, by means of a special magnetised condenser of the astral plane termed the Magic Mirror, of which our author speaks in connection with the Arsenal of Magic, just as he speaks of the visions seen in coffee grounds in the chapter dealing with divinations of the second degree . And I quite understand the reserve which he shews here ; but perhaps he ought to have dealt separately at least with the psychometry which has been tested by experiments . Our author, it is felt, gives but a limited belief to these divinations of the second degree . Yet he describes conscientiously, not the hundreds of ancient methods which are nearly forgotten, but those of the Kabbala (such as onomancy, taromancy) and also the oracles, the prophecies which prove that the secret influences of this radiance govern many of our states of mind . And here also we skirt the mysteries of presentiment, of telepathy which evidently belong more to those studies which relate to the metaphysical sciences . And why should we not have these subtle forebodings ? Have animals not often a sure instinct which warns them of danger? Why should man be deprived of a similar faculty when he nears strife, death, events of the first importance ? How strongly we sometimes apprehend the Future ! How many soldiers during the war had in advance the certainty of their imminent death ! How many people have the intuition to go or not to go here or there, to do or not to do such or such a thing ! Strange power of vague prevision ! Kind of obscure voyance . Let him explain who likes . The Occultist, who does not believe in chance but in the mysterious forces of Nature, finds his thread of Ariadne in the extreme sensitiveness of the outer mind from which, it might be said, fluid antennae spring, draw out and grasp the future . Let us sum up :Even though he may not be able to explain it until the mighty and subtle forces of Nature, the constitution of the Universe and of the human being are better known, yet through the accumulated experience of the centuries it is possible for man to know by the aid of Astrology the initial inclinations of his life, and by the aid of Physiognomony, Chiromancy and Graphology, his temperament, his character, the possibilities of his destiny . Another group of sciences, more vague, entirely intuitive, but likewise based on the experience of centuries enables him at any period of his life to control its direction . Whence it follows that it is better to discuss these matters than to smile at them . The value of this book lies in the fact that it helps us to consider them in an atmosphere of lucidity and good faith .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES XI

And now we arrive in the midst of the strange but moving medley of the magical sciences . I confess that in these chapters I have not merely been taught a mass of things, but I have also learnt to be less surprised at things in which I used to see nothing but superstition or childishness, to respect certain rites whose high symbolism I have come to understand, to think more deeply over things and deductions which formerly were for me only dim visions guessed at through scattered or hasty reading or by intuition, and to strengthen my old resolution always to leave the window of my mind open to unknown winds . Always for instance I had been impressed by the secret meaning of numbers, by the certainty of the existence of human magnetic currents, similar to other vibratory methods of the ether, by the probability of the unity of matter, by the enigmatic but definite value of prophets and great leaders of men such as Moses, Solomon, Christ . . And that is why there was such great interest for me in the study of the Kabbala, of the riddle of numbers, of the power of the Word, of Alchemy, of Witchcraft, of High Magic, of Hermetism . Veils covering fabulous horizons were torn . The sacred texts of religions became illuminated. The voice of Ezechiel rose from the depths and commanded my attention . The Apocalypse lost its obscurity . Moses, Buddha, Christ and very many others grew in my sight, sublime initiates who had seemed to me superhuman without my being able to explain it, and whom yet I refused to acknowledge as gods . The old Wisdom arose out of the mystery and became a harmonious and magnificent Temple. In short Occultism dazzled me by its truths, linked together, as I have already said, into a huge and solid synthesis, similar to some great tree from which one may with right pick off some dead leaves, but which, driving its roots right down to the foundation of human thought, raises towards the sky its branches in which are built the singing nests of hope . Here I am no longer called upon to vindicate, and our author himself has undertaken to explain . I can therefore only draw attention to the moral greatness and the intelligence of the pages devoted in this book to the magic sciences . However, I note that the classification adopted is in no wise obligatory . I know of two other possibilities at least, but this is unimportant if everything that has to be said is in fact said. Here is for instance a different statement of the problem of Magic, given by Pierre Piobb in his well known Formulary :- 1 In his opinion and in the words of Karl du Pre], Magic is but " unknown natural science ." And this science includes Astrology, Alchemy and Magic properly so called, Astrology dealing with the 1

Formulaire de Haute-Magic (publisher, Daragon) .

INTRODUCTION 37 celestial bodies in their nature and movements, Alchemy with matter in its essence and evolution, Magic with fluids or the fourth state of matter, so far but little known because Antiquity cared less for demonstration than for observation and deduction. In other words Astrology is the science of causes, Alchemy or hyper-chemistry the science of the evolution of matter, Magic or hyper-physics the science of fluids . As for Paul Jagot, he starts out from Psychism and its manifestations which, closely studied for more than half a century, have verified the general principles of Magic . He classifies and explains its manifestations -exteriorisation of sensitiveness and motivity, perception of matters situate outside the senses, telepsychics, division of personality . He describes the constitution of Man as seen by Occultism and his threefold correspondence with the Universe . He shows the power of thought and how it may be used in personal Magic . " The work of Fabre d' Olivet, Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Barlet, Papus, Stanislas de Guaita," he says, " has shown clearly that Nature, explored by the scholars of Antiquity in a manner differing from ours, yielded to them the secret of certain laws which they were able to apply, of a class of forces barely suspected by the moderns ; in short that they succeeded in discovering the interaction of divers cosmic causalities and to erect on the foundations of this knowledge a doctrinal synthesis at once ethical, metaphysical and experimental-the fragments of which modern occultists seem to reconstruct ." Passing from individual Magic to traditional Magic, P . Jagot shows that the latter introduces new elements into the former and inclines to collect various cosmic currents so as to obtain effects desired and corresponding to the nature of each of them . Whence it is necessary to know planetary relations, the best moment for the collection of the fluids, the attracting graphisms and the condensing substances . Then comes the application-preparation of talismans, evocations, witchcraft (enchantments, possession, etc .). Thinking that there is, on the one hand, a definite link between Magic and the Kabbala, on the other hand that it is important from the point of view of Occultism not to forget Alchemy, that further there is an obvious connection between magical practices and the hermetic doctrine, the author of this Encyclopaedia has thought it better to divide the second part of his book into three chapters, dealing successively with Low Magic, Alchemy and High Magic . Without wishing to attach . a derogatory meaning to the first of these titles, he includes in it everything that relates to witchcraft and his store of formulae, recipes, bizarre preparations, sacred articles ; also Satanism, necromancy, potions, charms ; further he deals with luck, cledomancy, fetishes ; finally he brings us a " language of flowers," the symbolism of stones, etc . It is a curious collection of information

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from which each one will select that part which appeals to him . There can here no longer be a question of criterion, test, law, proof . Some facts are admitted to be correct, such as the possibility of voyance by means of magic mirrors, the possibility of possession, etc . Some beliefs seem to proceed from superstition, or from a kind of auto-suggestion . In very many cases it is impossible to draw a fine line between the true, the probable and the absurd. But how much could be said on the analogy, for instance, between amulets and scapularies, the one a remnant of paganism, the other a pious practice, both in truth descended from the pantacle of old ; on the similarity between spells and the transmission of disease ; on luck, on fetishes still so much to the fore ; on the explanation of many cases of witchcraft, etc ., etc . A chapter follows on Alchemy, and our author shows how this can take its place as intermediary between Low and High Magic . But here we feel that the Eneyclopoedist is ill at ease . He would like to enlarge and dare not for fear of entering into too learned and too lengthy discussions. As a matter of fact Alchemy is derided only by the ignorant and the superficial who saw in it only a trick of witchcraft having for its object the " making of gold " whereas in reality it is the science of sciences, marvellously philosophical, called nothing more nor less than the Great Art, by reason of its depth and vastness . Let us remember at least, so as to explain it roughly by a mere quotation from The Evolution of Life and its Forms, these words of Annie Besant :-" The fundamental difference between the Science of the past and the Science of to-day is that the former studies the World by placing itself at the standpoint of the life which evolves, whereas the latter studies the World by observing the forms through which life manifests itself. The former consequently studies life and looks to the forms only for its expression ; the latter studies the forms and tries to discover by induction whether there is a subjacent principle, a substance by means of which the multitude of its forms may be explained . The former works from the top downward, the latter from the bottom upward, and this very fact foretells us a meeting point where they will join each other so as afterwards to walk hand in hand ." It is an error, therefore, to say that Alchemy is the lisp of Chemistry . To begin with the alchemists knew Chemistry 1 in part at least, and all that has been done is to add knowledge to theirs ; they knew formulae which are lost to-day ; they could make artificial stones harder than granite, exceedingly effective remedies from quintessences, obtain allotropic modifications of metals, etc . And then and above all they were metaphysicians, occultists who had a general idea of the World, 1 Chemistry was only the first step, the science of the beginners who could later pass on to

Alchemy and become initiates, and finally rise up to the summit of hermetic philosophy, the Supreme Science .

INTRODUCTION 39 of Matter and of Life, and were thus animated by a spirit of synthesis which is lacking in the majority of our laboratory scholars who are more and more specialised . The hope expressed by the great theosophist Annie Besant must be preserved . Great minds like Poisson, Jollivet-Castelot, etc ., have taken up Alchemy again under the more appropriate name of Hyperchemistry . In the same way there is in course of creation a Hyperphysics, which goes beyond the usual researches and penetrates into the world of unknown forces, so rich in surprises and instruction . I do not say that it is necessary to go back to the whole of ancient science . But by clearing its undergrowth and keeping above all its wonderful spirit, by linking . it up with the modern discoveries and theories, it seems to me that it should at last be possible to erect the monument of True Science, the basis of definite Philosophy, or better still, making together with it but one great indissoluble and sublime whole . XII Ancient Science, ancient Wisdom, High Magic, Kabbala, Hermetism, Taroc, at bottom they are one whole ; they are the admirable attempt at the understanding of the Visible and the Invisible of great minds who no doubt did not know all that we know, but who also knew many things which we no longer know . These words ought no longer to evoke merely bizarre and childish stories of sorcerers . They must come to evoke a moving chapter of Man's intellectual adventure, an attempt at an explanation of the Universe, marvellously interesting and by no means worn-out . It has been tried to substitute for this explanation, sometimes no doubt believed to be too daring, another, altogether analytical, materialistic, so-called daughter of Exactness and the Critical Mind . Far be it from me, who had very marked determinist leanings, and inclined to the belief in nothing after life, to deprecate the achievements of our scholars during three centuries . But I cannot forbear noticing with L6on Denis that they have allowed the Great Doubt to continue in existence, whilst the Church, with its categorical but insufficient affirmations, and attacking both the old occult tradition and the official Science, although imbued with the former and pretending to make use of the latter, has placed itself in a state of manifest inferiority . These two enemies, allied against the third thief of Knowledge, have, whilst fighting each other, weakened for a long time their intellectual fulfilment of Humanity ; but now we find them compounding with a tradition renewed by a rising free fine flower of intellect which may well one day triumph over the double obstinacy of the Laggards .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES And this fine flower is attenuated neither in quality nor in quantity . The Metaphysical sciences have conquered hundreds of important names : doctors such as Charcot, Dariex, Louys, Geley, Bernheim, Baraduc, Osty, Flammarion the astronomer and Lombroso the criminalist, William Crookes who discovered thallium and invented the radiometer, the physicist Oliver Lodge, of the University of Birmingham, who gave us the theory of ions, Russel Wallace, the President of the English Society of Anthropology, the great Barret, of the University of Dublin, the engineer Varley, Duclaux, head of the Pasteur Institute, the geologist Barkas, the chemist Hare, Professor Myers, the philosopher Boutroux, and Bergson himself. . . I quote purposely haphazard names well known in various scientific departments, and I pass over hundreds, these having come to me at the point of the pen, and I keep back even eminent men like Delanne, Denis, Papus, Peladan, Guaita, Kardec, Leadbeater, Caille, Nus, Sedir, Marc-Haven, lest they be accused of partisanship . Yes, leaving on one side spiritists and theosophists and keeping only to those who are convinced metapsychists, it seems to, me that these thoughtful, lucid, unquestionably upright men constitute a very honourable company for those who advance with a firm step towards new horizons . tI do not wish to unclose the third part of this book where will be found these names and the experiments, the hypotheses, the certainties, the theories which are for ever connected with them . It is devoted to these metapsychic sciences which compel us to reconsider the problems of death, the soul, the beyond. Neither the University nor the Church, the one with its scepticism, the other with its mysticism, has given us any tested solutions . To them I prefer the conclusions, although they are still disputable in detail, proposed in the closing chapter of the present Encyclopaedia, to which conclusions I make free o j oin mine, and which are summed up as follows :Matter is but a semblance, a word . In truth there are only differences of condition, not of nature, between all bodies, inorganic or organic : Matter may disappear completely (vanish, according to the word of Lebon) in contradiction to the so-called axiom of Lavoisier (nothing is lost, nothing is created) . That which is is Force . A milligram of radium contains millions of atoms, each one of which is but a system of force . Matter and Force intermingle (Pythagoras already stated this) . The visible Universe is a compound of invisible elements . Death also is but a semblance . It is but a moment in the eternal life of the being, a moment in which its matter becomes disorganised by allowing the escape of the entity which made it live its earthly life and which goes on-as the ancients believed and taught-to live in the expectation of a reincarnation which as yet we know but dimly but suspect to be real, since the experimental proofs of it are so many .

40

INTRODUCTION 41 Further this ever living . entity must no longer be defined as has been the custom, and what used to be called soul must be understood to consist of two parts, the one wholly spiritual, the other fluid . Explanations on this important point will be read in the course of these pages . In addition, whatever may be its nature, the real soul, endowed with faculties and forces which still seem to be strange and are far from being thoroughly known, appears to be able to manifest itself visibly, to act from a distance, during its earthly life, and even after death . There is, therefore, after the physical death, not a break, but continuity for the soul, for the personality which does remain, in a new state at first entirely different from the world which it leaves so as to inhabit, no doubt temporarily, what the occultist calls hyperspace, the realm of the " fourth dimension." This hyperspace is thus peopled by milliards of souls of which a certain number are possibly reincarnated-when ? how ? where ? mystery!-and it is linked with space into which it somehow projects a diffused consciousness composed of the milliards of consciousnesses which have vanished from this earth . It becomes a centre at once cosmic and psychic, sometimes uniting with the individual consciousness of the living, creating psychic currents, comparable with the magnetic currents-hence the expression which becomes very true, " there are ideas in the air." As to the nature of these souls, I have already said that it must be double, one part of it being fluid . This is what occultists, theosophists, spiritists, call the outer soul (orperisprit) and which they call the seat of metapsychic phenomena . These phenomena, the author speaks of them fully enough to enable us to admit them with him, since they are reckoned to-day in thousands, all strictly checked . The facts can no longer be disputed . What remains obscure is their explanation, although the one suggested above is logical and clear, and it is the life after death which remains to be studied extensively . As to those who will only believe in phenomena which are reproducible at will, it is easy to answer them : you do not manufacture comets, meteorites, magnetic disturbances due to sunspots, and yet you observe them . Metapsychical phenomena are registered in the records of Occultism . That is all. The only thing to do is to check them . But the right remains to unite them amongst themselves by an attempt at a general explanation . The study of the Invisible, of the forces which it conceals, of the human fluids, is yet but at its dawn . Patience ! To deny is absurd . To observe is scientific. To think is wise . This is what I have done . It is what you will do after having read this book, the well arranged summing up of vast reading and lengthy thought.

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Thought which has been useful, even should it have for its sole result the furnishing, the uplifting of the intellect, the helping in the conduct of life . Thus the ancients, the old sages thought . And with a mind, be sure of it, very active, very open, very intuitive, confronting the observations of all with the doctrines of the Magi . And the elect deduced therefrom a system, often varying according to the schools, the personal turns of mind, but having a strong armour-the occult Tradition-sufficiently one in its diversity to enable us, having found it again, to revivify it by one great common effort . This armour is that of the old philosophical records, the Kabbala and the Taroc, Spiritism, Theosophy . It is the same everywhere with very slight variations . It is at the bottom of all religions, but freed from the crust of exoterism which hides their common basis, clear and easily understood by him who goes farther than superficial rites and catechisms . It is this freed basis of truth which constitutes modern Occultism . Let us therefore carry out this noble alchemy, an entirely intellectual one, which consists of the transformation into an armour of precious, hard metal and invulnerable, of the old rusted armour which still clothes a humanity slow to plumb what astounds it, slow to work at anything which does not seem to lead to its immediate material well-being . Now the wise man knows that well-being proceeds above all from success . Success is obtained by power over oneself and over others . The noble power of him who has knowledge and will . The power of him who is the master of his forces, and in one word of his fate . This book which you are going to read belongs to those which will teach you to know yourself and to know others, to keep a proper balance, to have, as they say, temperament, to lead your fate, therefore, to succeed-and to be happy . M . C hoINsoT.

42

FIRST PART THE DIVINATORY SCIENCES " We are so far from knowing all the powers of Nature and their various methods of action, that it would be poor philosophy to deny the existence of phenomena solely because they cannot be explained in the present state of our knowledge. Only we must examine them with an attention the more scrupulous as it seems more dafcult to accept them, and it is here that the analysis of probabilities becomes indispensable to enable us to determine the extent to which we must multiply observations or experiments, so as to obtain by means of the powers which they seem to indicate a probability superior to the reasons which we may have for rejecting their existence ." LAPLACE .

CHAPTER I ASTROLOGY I Historical and General Oust amiable " introducer " having undertaken the task of vindicating one after another the greater part of the various so-called occult sciences, we shall not enlarge greatly, in the case of each of them, on a demonstration already carried out, being content, by putting in order and collecting into a seeming whole the numerous notes communicated to the writer of the preface, with completing it on certain points, adding to it a few historical sketches and a few remarks and anecdotes, expanding theory and practice as clearly as we are able so as to render this Encyelopeedia really popular . The reader will already have understood why we begin with Astrology, the basis of the deductive divinatory arts . In addition it is no doubt the art which before any other haunted the first human dreams . Old in fact as the World, dating back to the distant times 1 when the shepherds guarding their primitive flocks employed the leisure time of solitude by watching the phenomena of Nature, and in particular the starry sky where very soon they discovered an unchanging order and rhythm, Astrology was at the start an amazed and quasi-religious meditation, a vast dream in which slowly principles and laws were sketched out. Little by little these men who, nearer to Nature than we are, had an instinct and an intuition perhaps more developed than in our days, 2

1 It is well known to what distant dates geologists to-day place back the appearance of human beings on the earth . Supposing it to be contemporary with the quaternary age (and many think it goes back to the end of the tertiary) it would already have an existence of 125,000 years . But we must not expect from the still animal outline of primitive man a speculative intellect. It is thought that this outline required 100,000 years to reach the yet very relative civilisation of the so-called mousterian era . It is therefore about 15,000 or 20,000 years that we must date back man having an articulate language, a vague religion (he already believed in survival), a few thoughts-and consequently a first sketch of astrological science . 2 Men little inclined to credulity, such as Dr . Frumusan, are willing to believe it rather than admit on the other hand a constant perfecting of psychism . The reason for this is that instinct and intuition have decreased in man as the result of the artificial life of civilisations and the development of the centres of reason ; and on the other hand far more diviners, metagnomons, sorcerers, etc ., are found among primitive peoples than among the moderns, where these curious personalities are in fact recruited chiefly among people who are worn out or of low culture ; and finally the study of animals shows their admirable understanding of each other without language, their foreknowledge of death, of danger, of particular events .

45

46

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

thought that they observed dim influences emanating from those stars whose progress was so regular ; they believed it as the result of numerous observed facts which corroborated each other, and as the result of analogical reasonings, first simple but later more and more complicated . Thus a true science, composed of tradition constantly added to by fresh observations, was formed amongst these wanderers who took as their guides the stars themselves, a science obviously mingled with superstition, with explanations falsified by the failure of the critical mind (although they used this critical mind sparingly, preferring sure experiment to uncertain reasoning), by the lack of our marvellous optical instruments (which will be toys in a few hundred years) and also by ignorance of subsequently discovered laws. A religious science, for behind these torches of the night they put the faces of more or less tutelary divinities . A science at bottom confused, vitiated by errors and childishnesses, but yet rich in astounding intuitions, in millions of confirmations, and in all kinds of other knowledge, slowly collected, which little by little became classified . And thus in Nineveh and in Babylon were found in one and the same temple altars erected for the worship of the stars and observatories for the study of their movements . From Asia, where Astrology flourished particularly in Chaldea and in India, it spread over the rest of the ancient world-Egypt, Greece,' Rome, the various Mediterranean countries . It would seem that it was the Assyrians who, having for their chief gods the Sun and the Moon, conceived the Zodiac and best described the journey of the two principal " luminaries " through the twelve constellations corresponding to a division into twelve months of the complete rotation of the Sun round the Earth . 2 It was Greece which gave to the planets (early distinguished from the stars but of which only those were known which are visible to the naked eye) and to the signs of the Zodiac the divine or symbolic names which we have preserved (even in astronomy) . Christianity attacked Astrology without, however, denying it, accusing its followers not of imposture but of demonism, which is not astonishing although absurd, seeing that it set free-will up against the fatalism with which it wrongly believed this science to be imbued . 3 1 Astrology has been known in Greece since the time of Hesiod and Homer ; but it is said that it was Berose who brought the Chaldean tradition from Babylon to Athens, whilst Manekran was bringing it from Egypt. ' It remains understood that they believed that it was the Sun which turned round the Earth . But the astrological result of the astronomical truth (which inversely admits the revolution of the planets round their solar centre) is absolutely the same . 8 It has been shown in the Preface that the Church, whilst making its reservations, does not condemn Astrology any longer from the point of view of Faith .

ASTROLOGY 47 The European Middle Ages-after the dark times of the Invasions -very eagerly studied Astrology (preserved particularly in Italy) which reached its apogee in the Sixteenth Century . The names of Nostradamus, Ruggieri, Gauric, Cardan, Morin de Villefranche are well known. But already Astronomy was arising, although Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Spinoza, Galileo, whilst accepting the new ideas, did not in any way deny a part of the older ones . The two sciences quickly became enemy sisters, as always happens when a tree of belief splits into two branches one of which attempts to supplant the other (such as Protestantism and Catholicism-proceeding from Christianity) . On the one hand some tended towards a science called exact, founded solely on calculation, on positive and renewable experiments, on logical deduction ; on the other hand others did not want to abandon a tradition so rich in analogies, in authorities, in acquired observations . The former thus created a science to some extent official, academic, dogmatic, opposed (instead of uniting with it) to the old Astrology, which was relegated to the rank of divinatory arts, occult, scoffed at, ridiculed . It must be confessed that its experts conduced to the mockery by retaining, perhaps on purpose, a somewhat baroque attitude, a somewhat bizarre vocabulary, a hermetism which, however, was not without pride . Several fell into quackery . And it is not so long ago that it seemed as if Astrology were definitely sentenced to remain the bee in the bonnet of a few inoffensive eccentrics, the livelihood of a few old fogeys, and an example of popular credulity. But now we find that educated and inquisitive persons, patient searchers, occultists determined to remain sane and clear in mind, united during the middle of last century in thinking that perhaps all was not so childish or so stupid in these century old statements .' Thinking it over, they found that all the so-called occult sciences were connected, held together ; they re-read the old texts ; they tried to clarify tradition ; they definitely parted company with the quacks ; and finally bravely they reconstructed Astrology such as true scholars teach and practise it to-day . 2 1 Astrology had as basis, according to Pierre Piobb, an electro-magnetic induction of the stars, the mathematical formula of which was published recently. . This induction was termed influx. The interplay of the various influxes produces the conditions of life on earth . Astrology is in short the science of material and psychological determinism . 3 It would seem to be true that it was the Greek Posidinius who, according to Bouchg Leclercq, was the first to give to Astrology natural foundations. We must subsequently come down to Morin to find Astrology again escaping from the occult ideas . Finally it is Caslant who in our own time started again on the scientific track on which are engaged men of pure reasoning such as the polytechnician Chouasnard (Paul Flambart). Side by side with him we may mention amongst eminent astrologers of yesterday and to-day, Hentges, Fomalhaut, Krafft, Mainssieux, Selva, Barlet, Brieu, Ely Star (although he often uses kabbalistic methods), etc ., etc .

48

THE OCCULT SCIENCES II

Cases of Prophecies-Astrological Signs

And yet, in spite of our good will, we shall not be free from reproach . The obstinate sceptics will always look upon us as visionaries, and our scientific progressives will call us laggards . We have given our answer to the former . The latter will allow us to wait, before popularising their methods, until these become more perfected and consequently clearer, therefore simplified, for the more an art or a science progresses, the more simple it becomes . In this book we will keep to an Astrology whose modernised tradition is full of prophecies which became true . One of the best known of these is that of Pierre d'Ailly who predicted the French Revolution some three hundred and fifty years before it broke out . The Centuries of Nostradamus comprise several centuries, and his predictions for the most part came true . We find one of the most remarkable horoscopic successes-made, it is true, by a Hindoo -in the Memoirs of Lord F ., published by the Century Review, and quoted by Luc Orion in his Astrology Unveiled :F.'s father, so he tells us, was the younger son of an exceedingly rich English family, but owing to the law of primogeniture, he himself was poor . At the beginning of the Eighteenth Century he was Lieutenant in command of an outpost in the Punjab (India) . One evening his scouts brought in a Hindoo who said he lived in a distant sanctuary, the priests of which practised Astrology . As this man did not seem to be very suspect, the Lieutenant was on the point of letting him go, when a sudden thought occurred to him-he offered him his liberty in exchange for a horoscope . The Brahmin begged him to be careful, saying that it was dangerous to pry into the sacred mysteries . The companions of the officer, much impressed, did not ask to know their fate . F.'s father alone insisted. He gave the date of his birth, and the Hindoo, having consulted the sky and mentally drawn up the horoscope, answered after a long pause in a solemn voice :" You desired to know. Listen. Yet ten revolutions of the sun and three revolutions of the moon, and you will be rich and a lord ; you will rise to fortune on a ladder made of eleven corpses . Yet three more revolutions of the sun and two revolutions of the moon and silk will cause your death . The stars have spoken." F. smiled and let the Hindoo go. But soon he heard of the death of the head of his house, an English peer, then, having left India, of the death of the eleven members who within ten years and three months left him . heir to the title and fortune of his brothers . Remembering the prophecy, the first part of which had been so strangely fulfilled, he forbade the use of all silk in his castle . But when fresh trouble

ASTROLOGY

49

broke out in India, he rejoined the Service . He had barely reached his post when the well-known " revolt of the Thugs " broke out, and he was strangled, in accordance with the custom of these rebels, with a silken cord. And this happened thirteen years and five months after the adventure in the Punjab . Next let us extract from an old number of the Gaulois, the following paragraph which appeared shortly after the death of the celebrated occultist Stanislas de Guaita :The sale of the library of the very distinguished occultist, the Marquis de Gualta, a fervent Catholic, has once more brought to the fore those old books of prophecies of which he had collected such extraordinary examples . Their number is incredible, and in almost all of them there are gleanings for the plain man as well as for the better informed . When we consider, for instance-from the time of the Revolution down to the excitements of the present day-the events of the century in their connection with the prophecies of seers of all times and of all countries, we are struck by their coincidence with historic truth . From 1781 to our own time there is not one fact of real importance which has not been foretold, long years before its occurrence, by the most celebrated among the seers . The horrors of the Revolution, the coming of Bonaparte, his unexpected good fortune, his pride and his reverses, the campaign in Russia, 1814, 1815, the entrance of the Allies into Paris, the Restoration of the French Royal Family, the fall of the Bourbons and Louis-Philippe, " the cock taking the place of the lily," the reign of what some call Plutocracy, the revolution of 1848, Napoleon III, the Crimean War, the disasters of 1870 have been foretold in language so precise, so striking and so clear that we rightly remain amazed . No other epoch has ever seen such a harvest of prophets and seers as ours . And, without speaking of Mlle. Couesdon or of the visionaries whose truthfulness has not been definitely proved, is it necessary to refer to the Prophetic Voices of the Abbe Curique, the predictions of Father Necton, those of the Nun de Belley, of the Trappist of Orthez, of the Abbe Souffrant, of the Beer of Owell, the " announcements " of Mgr . d'Hohenloe, the Last Word of the Prophecies of Turrique, the predictions of Melanie Calvat, of Marie Lataste, of the ecstatic of Boullerest . . . and so many others who are found every day ? Among all these visions of the, future two are specially revered by the lovers of occult matters . The well known Prediction of Orval and the Prophecy of Premol owe their universal fame as much to the clearness and the certainty of their statements as to their indisputable authenticity, since they have been found as far away as India . Let us add to these two or three known facts relating to the phenomenon of prediction . The astrologer Bishop Luc Garic, so says the Princess of Cleves, had foretold to Henry II that he would be killed in a duel ; to the

50 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Due de Guise that he would be murdered ; to a certain M . d'Escars that he would have his head broken by the kick of a horse ; it is well known that he was not mistaken . Cazotte (the author of the Devil in Love) and who also was an initiate, being one evening at the house of Chamfort, shortly before the Revolution, which was already being talked of, foretold :to Condorcet, that he would die in prison by poisoning himself ; to Chamfort, that he would cut his veins by twenty-two cuts with a razor ; to Vic-d'Azir, that he would die of an attack of gout to Nicolai and Bailly, that they would go to the scaffold ; to the Duchesse de Grammont, that she too would go into the fatal cart .

All these suffered the unhappy lot foretold them by this seeracademician in 1786 . Olivarius, surgeon and theologian, published in 1542 a Book of Prophecies in which we find, written beforehand, a biography which corresponds almost item by item with Napoleon I . In 1550 appeared the Book of the Condition and Mutation of the Times, by Richard Roussat, Canon of Langres, and we find this description of it made recently by a bookseller in his catalogue, where he values it at the tidy sum of 2,000 francs :" Among the curiosities of this work we find the remarkable prophecy in which the French Revolution is announced in a very definite manner . In the paragraph (page 162) which we reproduce below, the dates 1789 and 1814 are indicated in full words :-'Let us leave and put an end to speaking of things completed and which are done daily, which almost all men know and are aware of unless they are stupid and idiots . And now let us change our subject and come to speak of the great and marvellous conjunction which the astrologers tell us is to come about the years of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine (1789), and about twenty-five years later (1814) . Having considered and calculated all these things, the said astrologers conclude that if the world endures until such and such a time (which to God alone is known) very great mutations and alterations will take place in this universal world ; even unto the religions and the laws.' " Of course all these prophecies which we relate at this moment are not particularly astrological, and many are phenomena of voyance of which we shall have to speak again . But we hope to be forgiven if we encroach in these anecdotes on later chapters, which themselves are not deprived of them . It may also be thought to be not out of place, on the very threshold of a book dealing mainly with the divinatory sciences, to give typical examples of various divinations which them-

ASTROLOGY

51 selves prove that, whencesoever they may proceed-from the reading of the skies, the hand, the cards, etc .-they form an important whole of mysterious facts well worth study . This is why we allow ourselves to recall here the recent and disconcerting stories which went the round at the time of the excavations carried out in the Valley of Kings, in Egypt . It is well known that the violation of the tomb of Tut-ank-Amen was followed by the somewhat early and somewhat strange death of several of those who were responsible for it. Soon after, another death caused surprise in the world of Literature, the death, in the East, of the journalist, Andre Tudesq, not so much on account of the death itself, at which his friends were not much astonished, for they knew that their colleague was consumptive, as on account of the report thereof given by the President of the Press Syndicate of Cochinchina which follows :While I was trying, writes M . de la Chevrotiere, to comfort him, while I attempted to make him believe that the end was not near, he shook his head and told me the following prophecy ::'Friend, I am a marked man . " There are holy places which it is not right to violate . " An emiment traveller took into a holy temple at Angkor an impious axe, a bonze foretold his death . He was, as you know, murdered ! " The Governor General Long, Northcliffe, and I, we also violated, with the impiousness of inquisitive tourists, a temple hidden in the woods, of which a Buddhist priest wanted to bar us the entry . " This bonze put a curse on us and told us in his imprecations that before five years had elapsed we should all three be removed from the number of the living. " Northcliffe was the first to die . Poor Maurice Long fell on the journey, at Colombo . I alone am left. This is the fourth year . " I feel the prediction of the bonze weighing down my fate ." Andre Tudesq lies there, dead ; the prophecy has come true . We have here a prophecy by curse and not by astrology-so be it . We shall see later what Magic thinks of it and how it explains it . Still it is a prophecy, like many thousand others . And we wanted to begin by quoting some before plunging into the heart of our subject. • • ll not • base• our faith on anecdotes It is of course understood that w e sha of this kind, although it would be possible to multiply them . Such exactness in the knowledge of the future remains somewhat fantastic . But more within our reach and more easily checked are horoscopic statements relating to this or that person whom we know . It is in this realm convenient for our examination that we can and must draw up our tables of nativities-we shall presently show how .

52

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

And here also we have the support of modern scholars, as is shown by this fragment of an interview given to our colleague Andre Arnyvelde by the celebrated F . Ch . Barlet (who died in 1922) :" Apart from the study of the Kabbala, of religions and their symbols, the only concrete science to which M. F .Ch . Barlet devoted himself is Astrology . In this realm he is looked upon as a master, and the work which forms the result of his researches is law . As I ask him for a few definite details, he gives me a large mass of cases in which the future was described to him with certainty by means of astrological tables . He helped in the cure of children, whose coming illnesses he had seen ; during the war he was able to put on their guard soldiers and officers whom he knew or who were described to him, by warning them of the day and the hour when they would take part in the attack, and what precautions they would be able to take . When the events did not bear out the tables, there was yet always a part of truth in what the latter had foretold. Thus M . Barlet several times during the war read in the stars the end of the war, and if at the date given the war did not end, still it became known subsequently that these dates had always coincided with attempts or proposals for peace . . . " Astrology, continued M . Barlet, is the great providential guide which, by warning us, or by showing to us what we should not have known of ourselves, enables us to correct . The more we perfect ourselves, the more we escape from Astrology, that is to say, Fate. Yet it is the great Teacher . It is the proof that there is `something' which governs humanity . It leads man towards an immortal realisation of the Absolute, of the Absolute looked upon as an inexhaustible power which manifests itself progressively.'" A good astrological exercise will be the construction of the horoscope of great men whose qualities, defects and career are known to us . We shall thus have excellent tests . For instance the horoscope of Gamahut, the sinister murderer, has been drawn up . Criminal leanings abounded in it :-Mercury in Scorpio, Mars and the Moon joined in house and in addition equated with Saturn. Saturn twice, joined with Jupiter and Mercury in house X, which means condemnation, imprisonment, violent death . Proof of low instinct likewise abounds in the astrological table of Pranzini . We do not set it out in detail, especially because the expressions used will for the moment seem to you sibylline, although presently they will become clear. But we may add that, drawn up again and again by qualified astrologers, at the other end of the appalling ' We could not be more up to date than by pointing out that at the last Congress of Experimental Psychology, the President, after having again replied to all the objections raised against Astrology, showed the scientific and social utility of such study . " Its great utility," he said, " is that by showing us our qualities, flaws and defects, and the conjunctions in which the subject will probably find himself, it enables us to correct the defects, eradicate the flaws, foresee the events, and to ward them off before they have become real ."

ASTROLOGY 53 horoscopes above mentioned, that of Victor Hugo is truly magnificent, that of Napoleon most remarkable with its double prediction of rise and fall . A young pupil of Professor Theano (Mme . Bordy) one day during one of the lectures of this learned and charming woman at the Lecture Hall of the Learned Societies drew the horoscope of Pierre Loti illustrated on the blackboard . The fascinated students recognised item by item in the celestial signs the beautiful and melancholy terrestrial adventure of this great writer . Farther on we shall find a fairly simple method of recognising without recourse to the horoscope, by means of planetary typology, the main influences of the stars on a human being . But it is time we reached the practical object of our chapter :-the principles of Astrology and their application . First however, it is necessary to give the Table of the signs generally used in Astrology, at least those representing the seven planets and the twelve constellations of the Zodiac . Here they are, together with an explanation resembling that given in the Human Cosmogony of Elie Alta who says they are derived from the configuration of the Zodiac :- 1 1 . The Sun is represented by a circle showing traces of the human face, but simplified by a dot in the centre, symbol of the infinite and of the figure 10 . 2 . Saturn means Time (remember Mythology) represented by a cross and the four quarters of the circle symbolic of duration, the finite within the infinite . It is therefore pictured by a cross with one of the quarters of the circle, or sometimes two opposite quarters . 3 . The Moon is pictured by a crescent, plain without any further explanation . 4 . Mars is a ray shooting forth from the Sun, like an arrow of heat . 5. Venus has for its sign a cross surmounted by a circle . It is in short the sign of Time placed under that of the sun, for Venus is solar fertility, but dependent on Duration. 6 . Mercury has for sign that of Venus surmounted by a lunar crescent, sometimes by two quarters of the circle which perhaps are symbolic of wings (as in Mythology), Mercury being the intermediary between the four elements and the phenomena produced by them . 7. Jupiter is more complicated . There are three suns, symbolic of earthly fire maintained by heavenly fire and rising out of the waters under the form of steam (fire-ether), which falls back as beneficent rain . These three suns are united by lines forming a kind of 4 which explains the hieroglyphic simplification which has been made of it . 1 Which theoretically is a circle divided into four by the seasons .

54

THE OCCULT SCIENCES TABLE OF THE PLANETS,

THEIR COMPLETE CONFIGURATION AND THE SIMPLIFIED SIGN WHICH REPRESENTS THEM

4

As to the 12 signs of the Zodiac, here is their configuration, beginning with the Ram, the first of the astrological year (start of spring) . 1. The Ram is represented by a ram's head, but simplified into a figure forming a horizontal 3, symbol of beginning fertility, the head of the starry flock . 2 . Taurus : in principle a bull's head, also simplified into an 8 open at the top . 3. Gemini : two children joined, simplified into a capital H . 4. Cancer or the Crab is represented by two horizontal Nines, joined or disjoined . 5. Leo : the symbol of the Sun followed by a tail, symbolic, says Alta, of " the spermatozoid, the principles of reproduction, the central fire of the earth, maturity, the vital force ."

ASTROLOGY

TABLE OF THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC, THEIR COMPLETE CONFIGURATION AND ABBREVIATED SIGN r

Jl.a-tn ~1 au~c,u.o

1+1

~

.Leo

TIP L co~uo " 124

Actu

~

.am"

L"X16

'WV~

~~'V V

A)

w x

>

+- .

55

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 6. Virgo . Alta sees in it the symbol of the digestive canal (as he saw in Cancer the symbol of the system of circulation) and that of the serpent which the Virgin often holds under her foot in the Christian images. Simplified, the sign is a sort of capital M . 7 . Libra . Middle sign of the Zodiac, symbol of equilibrium . A simplified scale . 8. Scorpio . Under the emblem of lightning ending in a dart of scorpion's tail . 9 . Sagittarius. A man drawing a bow . Simplification : an arrow . 10. Capricorn . Alta sees in it the signs of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars oined into one forming three crescents connected . j 11 . Aquarius : two wavy lines symbolic of the regular running of liquids (or fluids) . 12. Pisces . Two fishes joined into a sign, differing from, though resembling, that of Gemini .

56

We do not intend to lose our way among the long explanations given by various authors of these symbolic signs . Besides, later pages will clear up what may be left dark in this summary for those who are not initiated into the mysteries, symbols and analogies with which Astrology abounds . III The Planets and their Influences .

The Lord of the Day .

The natural Astrology, which confined itself to explaining the atmospheric variations, has become Meteorology . The cosmogonic Astrology, which studied the stars solely from the physical point of view (nature, course, etc .) has become Astronomy . It is horoscopic Astrology alone which concerns us here' . Its object is the study of astral influences . Let us study its various elements without further delay . We shall then come to the practical conclusions based on these data, namely the divination, or rather the expectation of a destiny, by means of casting the horoscope . 1 We had intended for a moment using the word Astromancy, suggesting to our colleagues . Besides Ely Star in this beautiful and curious art, that it was preferable to that of. Astrology Our reason was as follows

and others have used it . It is more logical and just as harmonious While it was the initial knowledge of the stars, the word Astrology (astron--star ; logos-word) was excellent, since it described the total of the knowledge of the sky ; but since to-day Astrology has given birth to other well-defined sciences, viz ., Astronomy and Meteorology, it now forms but a part of the old general science, namely that special science relating to the divination of character and of fate by means of the stars, and therefore it ought to be called Astromancy (astron-star ; manteia-divination) . We have, however, through modesty not yielded to the temptation . If the word is the right one, it will come into use by itself .

57 ASTROLOGY The reasons for believing in astral influences have been supplied . But what are these influences ? Tradition is going to show them to us, and first as regards the Seven Planets .' Let us remember that in Astrology the name of Lord of the Day is given to each of the stars which governs with its influence a day of twenty-four hours . In other words, the ancients believed that the stars each in their turn governing one day of the week were :-For Sunday, the Sun ; for Monday, the Moon ; for Tuesday, Mars ; for Wednesday, Mercury ; for Thursday, Jupiter ; for Friday, Venus ; for Saturday, Saturn. They also believed that where one or other of the parents belongs to a particularly well defined type, it is possible that through sympathetic harmony, birth may be advanced or delayed, so that it may take place at the time of the predominance of the ruling star . They believed that we have a certain character, not only because we are born under this or that sky, but that we are born under a particular sky because we have a certain atavistic character sketched out during gestation . " The astral influences of the moment of birth sum up the atavistic astral influences, those which ruled during gestation, and those which will rule during life ." (R. Sehwaeble) . It had' in fact been noticed that frequently a son is born under a sky not dissimilar from that of his father . Whence " family likenesses ." 2 Let us add, therefore, for the benefit of those who in all logic will want to add to the influence of the Lord of the day of birth the influence of the Lord of the day of conception, that Astrology enables them to do so in the following manner :The principle on which the sidereal forces react on the new-born child, impressing on it both a physical and a moral stamp, thus forming its character and its destiny, is found in the woman, the mother. Since it reacts in a sure fashion on the menstrual flow, it also obviously reacts on the pregnancy . It is therefore possible to prepare a natal horoscope by means of a prenatal horoscope . Now it seems settled that the conceptional life consists of three stages :-conception, the seventh month (when the foetus acquires a life of its own) and the moment of birth. Taking as basis the data which the German astrologer, Glaser, 1 Two others have been discovered, but possibly just because of their distance their in fluence is less ; they have only to be studied . It will also be observed that the word planet is here applied also to the star the Sun and to the satellite the Moon . Simple question of vocabulary. The Sun and the Moon were mainly called the two Luminaries . Further note :-It is well known that in the Kabbala a special number was given to each planet . It is very odd to note that these numbers begin with 3 (Saturn) and end with 9 (the Moon) ., The numbers 1 and 2 are not used, and correspond with the two planets then unknown, but perhaps guessed at . The other numbers are 4 (Jupiter), 5 (Mars), 6 (the Sun), 7 (Venus), 8 (Mercury) . I In this connection we might have to criticise at length the law of astral heredity, so dear to the great astrologer Paul Chouasnard .

58 THE OCCULT SCIENCES claims to have found in Egyptian inscriptions which reveal the method in this connection of the priest of Apis named Phuom-Omri, we shall be able to draw up a scheme for each of these three stages capable of being united into one threefold whole . However, as the exact date of conception is not always known, it will be sufficient to observe the general magnetic state of the sky during the ninth month preceding the birth during an approximate period of ten days . In this manner we shall obtain " the Lord of the Sign " and the " Lord of the Decanus " as to which we shall presently give the necessary explanations . Let us now pass on to the description of the general influence of each of the seven planets, remembering that it will always be more or less modified by other influences which we shall study subsequently . The Sun . This is the luminous hearth of the Universe, the source of heat, the emblem of wisdom and of will . It is youth and its ardour, its impetuosity and its generosity . It is life and its generative power . It is Apollo on his . fiery chariot. It was the star of Agamemnon, of Alexander, of Raphael, of Moliere . The Solarian 1 is generally of medium height, well made, of lemon colouring mixed with red . 2 His face is oval, his beard full, his hair auburn or golden, s his forehead prominent, his eye limpid, stern without unkindness, his cheeks are firm and fleshy, his nose is thin and straight, his eyebrows are well arched, his mouth largee and thick-lipped, his hips slender, his limbs thin, his gait noble, his body running more to muscle than to fat . The true apollonian sign-manual makes benevolent, proud, somewhat ambitious, cheerful, intelligent, qualified for command, wealth, celebrity, or at any rate for a brilliant position . It produces the intuitive, the inventor, the acute and keen-sighted who none the less are seduced by beauty, loving decoration, state, the arts and literature . Those who, born under this beneficent influence, wish to accentuate it, will prefer the colour white, take the chrysolith as their talismanic stone ; gold will be their metal, the lion their animal, saffron their scent ; they will give honour to the vine and the laurel . 4

• We deal here, as in the case of the other planets, with the description of an almost single influence. which never occurs . No solar type, saturnian or other, is pure . But the solar, saturnian, or other dominance may be very clearly marked . • Desbarolles, in speaking of the colour of the complexion in the different planetary types, always stresses it, giving it thus an importance which we mention in passing . • One reservation on this point . The auburn colour of the hair, formerly frequent, has yielded place first to fair hair, then to brown. The number of the brown-haired increases without ceasing . This important observation is not to be found in any of the books which we have perused . • As may be guessed, these symbols are akin to Magic which will be studied later on, but they are found in all books dealing with traditional Astrology . The scientists disdain them . All the same we have thought well to mention them by way of record .

ASTROLOGY 59 But there are shadows in this table . The Solarians run the risk of seeing their pride change into insufferable arrogance, their ambition into folly of grandeur, their talk into chatter, their elegance into eccentricity, their golden complexion into dull yellow ; their eyes may become weakened and veiled, their heart suffer palpitations . They will dread death by fire . Their home is sometimes unhappy, their children ungrateful . If they wish to avoid many disappointments, they will do well to remain lonely . The Moon. It has always been looked upon, even in literatures totally unconnected with the occult sciences, as the star of dreaminess, the golden muse of imagination and also of hallucination . Does not Pierrot sing for ever to the Moon of his unrequited love ? Merely by casting on us its magnetism the Queen of the Night would seem to be maleficent. It turns its sons into fantastic and changeable beings, those lunatics of whom we have all met specimens, people incapable of initiative, listless, apathetic, undecided . Imaginative yes, but always following a new desire ; they would like to spend their lives travelling . They are whimsical . The Selenians appear to be nervous, inclined to paralysis, to strabismus, to diseases of the brain (it is amongst them that the largest number of insane and neurotics is found), but for this same reason inclined to somnambulism, to magnetism, to hypnosis . Many are dreamers, visionaries . Very few become orators . The bad lunar types are lazy, drunkards, egoistical, liars and false . Tradition shews the well defined Selenian to have dull fair hair, head round, complexion pale, the eye weak or inattentive, the nose short and rounded, the temples wide . i It is in the main true that their face is usually astonished, melancholy, their flesh flabby, their body stout, their gait unsure, their limbs thick, their movements timid, their lips fleshy, their mouth bitter and small . Poets, fishers, sailors belong to this planetary type whose lucky metal is silver, their colour green, their talisman the pearl, the opal or selenite, their animal the ass, their plant (rather narcotic) the poppy, the buttercup or the tulip, their perfume amber. If painters, says J . de Grandpre, they will produce landscapes flooded with twilight ; if musicians, nocturnes and fantastic symphonies ; if writers, mysterious or fanciful novels . Corrected by Venus, they may become remarkable, as witness Theophile Gautier . Mars. Hostile planet (because it is the nearest to us ?) and unchaining catastrophes, according to the Ancients, such as wars, 1 The head round, wide above the temples where the organ of imagination is situate ; the upper part of the forehead, where in phrenology " causality " and " comparison " are situate, is not very prominent, but that part of the skull which is near the eyes and gives qualities of perception projects much (Desbarolles) .

60

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

revolutions, tempests, earthquakes . Star of wrath and brutality, but also of initiative and will, Mars is the lord of fire, the protector of the soldier, the god of war-makers, of men inclined to fury and to violent sensuality . The Martians, if they are subject to beneficent influences, are, however, able to transform these dangerous instincts into qualities, be merely self-willed, energetic, tenacious, enduring, loyal, even heroes . " The persons bearing the sign-manual of this planet," says Enigma .' " have a robust constitution, a manly appearance . Their hair is generally black or tawny, their glance quick and hard, their jaw large, their cheekbones prominent . Their gestures are quick, daring, and they walk quickly . The complexion of the Martian is swarthy, his nose bony and arched, his chin square, his temperament bilious . In the upper classes the subjects of this planet become surgeons, dentists, lawyers, generals, explorers, hunters . In the lower classes they become metallurgists, smiths, blacksmiths, quarriers, miners, butchers, hangmen, gunsmiths, soldiers, barbers, etc . The Martians die fairly young and often of a violent death . They are subject to accidents, to blows, to wounds, to inflammations . Few of them become rich, for they have no foresight. Their correspondences are :-In the animal kingdom, the wolf ; in the mineral, iron ; in the vegetable, absinthe ; their colour yellow, their stone the amethyst, their perfume garlic ; their chief characteristics, the face and muscles . Illnesses, hysteria, erethism (irritation of the tissues) . Mars allied to Saturn gave their impetuous qualities to Michael Angelo and to Leonardo da Vinci . Allied to Venus it dominated Horace Vernet . Caravage was a thorough Martian . In Julius Caesar were combined Mars and Jupiter . It was exaggerated Martianism which was responsible for the fiery complexion of Catilina, of Cassandra, of Caesar Borgia. 2 Mercury. He was the messenger of the gods. Intelligence . Science . Eloquence. Inventiveness . Movement . Mental and physical activity . This is his "charm" in addition fertilised to some extent by surrounding influences . The Mercurian is thus dexterous, intuitive, subtle, a good or smart speaker who can use his tongue either for good in the making of great speeches, for the defence of just causes, or for evil in order to deceive the masses, betray, cajole, slander . They have " by principle " grace and lightness, an indefatigable and prolonged youthfulness of soul, a sympathetic manner . They are simple, adapt themselves to events, have varied abilities. 1 2

Your Dealing. According to Desbarolles, following Porta's De humans phyaiogno7nonia .

ASTROLOGY 61 Mercurians become scholars, philosophers, geometers, doctors, postmen, grooms, commercial travellers, able merchants and industrials, lawyers and diplomats, comedians and dancers, and also, unfortunately, thieves, spies, forgers. The Mercurian is generally small, with a long face, a complexion like new honey, forehead high and prominent, rarely a beard, eyes deep set, very mobile, brilliant and crafty, the lips thin, the chin pointed, big shoulders and broad chest, the limbs both strong and thin, the voice weak . i They have, in the upper classes, quick and piercing thought, great love for sciences Saturn and Mercury united sometimes produce and arts . genius. The good influence of Mercury inclines towards real superiority, sobriety, a somewhat mocking gaiety, to study, the love of the family . If bad, it makes thin, with grimacing face, sometimes hunchbacked (and in those cases full of malice) 2 inclined to error, to superstition, to lying, to envy . The influence of Mercury produces intermittent fevers, stammering, convulsions, catarrhs, certain diseases of the mind such as worries, manias, madness . Metal, mercury ; plants, fir, valerian, camomile . Perfume, benzoin . Talismanic stones, agate and jasper . Animal, the dog. Colour, blue . Most sensitive part, the lungs . Jupiter. The anonymous scholar who is the author of Light of Egypt says that this planet holds the scales between Saturnian slowness and Martian haste . Its influence is beneficent . It governs the noble and generous parts of the human nature ( goodwill, veneration, spirituality, hope) . It symbolises the ethereal absorption into the Cosmic Being, and represents accordingly the organ of smell by means of which we apprehend the most subtle atoms ." Star of great magnitude (it comes in size next to Saturn), it provides what is good and compassionate in us ; its action is frank, upright, straightforward . The Jupiterian has a fine soul, honest, charitable, sincere, a high morality, humanitarian and philanthropic qualities . He has a feeling for justice, receives the gifts of sobriety, a high quality of cheerfulness, virility, sympathetic seriousness . Physiologically, he usually has chestnut hair, a high forehead, is tall, with smiling eyes, crimson lips, calm and dignified bearing, a fresh complexion, clear voice. The Jupiterians produce doctors, judges, magistrates and priests ; 1 As for instance Aristides, Plato and many scholars . Almost all hunchbacks, Desbarolles assures us, are under the double influence of Saturn and Mercury .

62 THE OCCULT SCIENCES statesmen and bankers.' Scholars and philosophers, too, bear the sign-manual of this good planet . Correspondences-violet, figtree, mushroom, aloe (as to perfume), sapphire, purple, tin, pig. Weak organ, the liver (the Jupiterian often sins through greediness) . Physical dangers, palpitations, bad blood (for they are sanguine) . As they get old they are inclined towards stoutness, baldness . They are supposed to be lovers of sensual pleasures (what we would call fast livers), fond of festivities and banquets, and also of settled conditions, order and social conventions. A proverb says of them, " They pass quickly out of poverty and puberty ." If the influence is bad on account of the appearances (see later on) of the planet at the moment of birth, the Jupiterian becomes proud, vindictive, a spendthrift, lustful, orgiastic ; he neglects his family to pursue pleasure. Among fine Jupiterian types were Rubens and Rossini . Venus . The day of Venus has always been and still remains Friday, as everyone knows. Oh, the lovely planet of love . . Happy is he who enjoys the protection of the Star of Eve, in spite of its few dangers ! Venus means beauty, gentleness, charm, gaiety, seductiveness, taste for music, song and dance, harmony of the form and purity of line, playfulness, generosity (and even improvidence), the desire to please, love of show, jewellery, flowers and perfumes. Franz Hartmann says, Venus is love . In her lowest states she means blind attraction, luxurious instincts . But in her higher aspects she is the guide of artists and therapeutists . Tritely Venus leads to worldly marriages and pleasures, to amorous free unions . Proudly she leads to exalted love and sublime devotion . The Venusian has deep red lips, a pink complexion, iridescent hair, long lashes, charmingly dimpled cheeks, straight nose and smiling mouth and eyes, a soft voice . 2 But he sometimes likes the pleasures of the senses to excess, and he suffers from weakness of the body, the kidneys, and the genital organs . Venus is the planet of artists, initiates, perfumers, courtesans . For her metal she has copper, for colour, red 3 ; for perfume, cinnamon ; 1 Yes, we are willing to allow that Tradition foresees among the Jupiterians, doctors, judges, magistrates and priests, all honest and noble . But alas, how many would give the lie to this astral sign if we did not know that many have not followed their natural vocation, but, governed by bad influences, have accepted positions for which they were not suited, or which merely assured them a good income . The Venusian voice is tender, a little drawling, noble, full of charm . It becomes harsh and husky through debauch ; just as animals at the time of heat have a hoarser voice . I Do not be surprised if the correspondence as to colour varies among different writers, and see on this the other remarks in the present book .

ASTROLOGY 63 for stone, turquoise ; for favourite plants, the bean and the syringa ; for animal, the goat . If the Moon, remarks the author of the Light of Egypt, represents the astral fluid in repose, Venus represents it in action . If maleficent in a feminine horoscope, she produces debauched and venal women. Otherwise she presides at healthy pleasures, at family and friendly reunions. Unless it is strengthened by another influence, that of Venus abandons its subjects to their feelings and their desires ; in man it produces effeminacy, excessive susceptibility, even intemperance and vice . The sign-manual of Venus is not unlike that of Jupiter, but the former is to some extent feminine, and the latter masculine . There are few artists, says Desbarolles, who are not under the influence of Venus, unless it be that their art is the result of science and not of inspiration . Saturn. Pale and slow planet, star of mourning and of curse, emblem of death and inertia, symbol of treachery and of cowardice : this is above all the Star of Mischief ! I . Saturn destroys, like Mars, but slowly (you will remember, in Mythology, Saturn devouring his children) . It is the dark reaper of the babies, whom it carries off through croup, meningitis and convulsions . It is the enemy of women, whom it makes barren . It is the spirit of evil, of lying, of perfidy, of defiance, of doubt, of sadness and of neurasthenia . The Saturnian, it is said, has an appearance of sadness ; his shoulders bent, body dry and long, eyes small, skin dark, chin angular, cheeks hollow, cheekbones prominent, jaws heavy, lips thin, nose hooked, a slow walk. He is taciturn, avaricious, envious, insincere, but also prudent, thoughtful, diplomatic . His virtues are, however, by no means sympathetic. 2 Saturn supplies us with monks, hermits, theologians, sorcerers, agriculturists . His colour is orange, his metal lead, his perfume sulphur, his animal the camel, his stones onyx and jet, his plants aconite and cypress . The Saturnian stands in special danger of paralysis, jaundice, arthritis, deafness, trouble with the legs (varicose veins, lameness, etc. ). But there are Saturnians of a good type, and in them the definitions given above will sometimes give interesting results . Some of them are good occultists, become great in mathematics and the abstract ' It will be seen farther on that the Tradition which is so hard on this star must be softened as it signifies concentration rather than curse . 9 In Italy the so-called iettatore (thrower of the evil eye) truly corresponds to the type of Saturn .

64 THE OCCULT SCIENCES sciences, in chemistry, in agronomy. Several musicians were Saturnians, among them Berlioz of the romantic symphonies, Beethoven (also influenced by Mars and Mercury), Ambroise Thomas, and above all the pale, dark, avaricious, lean and marvellous Paganini . Dante was a Saturnian . The Saturnians are sometimes great gamblers, because they want to dominate chance by combinations . " They are not very irascible," observes Desbarolles, " are hardworking, patient, because they are slow of mind and of body. They do not like either running or jumping. They are neither very sensitive nor very voluptuous, easily remain celibate . Most of the strict priests are Saturnians, and particularly the Jesuits who have the sadness, the asceticism, the pallor and the love of independence of the type and have adopted a habit black in colour. Before closing these data relative to the astrological value of the seven planets, a synopsis of which will be found farther on in a tabulated summary, let us mention a few more details. According to the author of the Light of Egypt the power of Mercury corresponds to the violet ray of the solar spectrum, the power of the Sun to the orange ray, that of the Moon to the green ray, that of Jupiter to the blue, that of Venus to the yellow, that of Mars to the red, that of Saturn to the indigo . But there is on the subject of planetary chromatism another theory, that of Ely Star, which may be summed up as follows :The scale of colours is given both " by the rainbow, aerial prism . and by the prism, crystal rainbow." What do we see in it ? First of all three basic colours, red, yellow and blue, then their complements, consisting of a colour formed by the total of the other two, namely, yellow-blue or green, red-blue or violet, and red-yellow or orange . i " The law of analogies," he adds, " must guide us, and spread the colours over the sevenfold scale, just as it spreads the virtues and the vices over the metals, the faculties of the soul over the days of the week, etc. And in all classifications by sevens there is a group of three and a group of four . Eliphas Levi, Lacuria, Fabre d'Olivet and all the great occultists have shown us that the threefold gives birth to the fourfold ." The colours thus fall into a group of three and a group of four . These two groups correspond to those of the planets :-Mercury, the Sun and the Moon on the one hand ; Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn on the other. 2 The group of three forming the triangle, and the group 1 As to indigo, says the author, it is outside, it is the symbol of night . Admitted. But what does he think of ultra-violet and infra-red ? The progress of Science ought to have been taken into account ' The author has previously in fact explained, or perhaps stated rather than explained, this grouping of the planets in three and in four .

ASTROLOGY

65 of four the cross, the whole making up light (the experiment of the disc of seven colours producing white light by rapid rotation is well known) we may draw up the following table, the explanation of which follows :Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus . . Saturn

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

yellow blue orange red violet green indigo

.,

Mercury, in fact, continues the author, is a double planet, the symbol of the order of the Science of Good and of Evil . Its duality has given birth to two powers, that of the Sun (Good) and that of the Moon (Evil). The Sun is the reason, the Moon the folly of the house (imagination) . These two forces lie latent in Mercury, the symbol of Free-will . The Sun in turn gives birth to two beneficent forces, the active one of Jupiter (authority), and the passive one of Venus (obedience) . The Moon, itself contingent evil, produces active evil in conjunction with Mars (usurpation of authority) and passive evil in conjunction with Saturn (revolt) . By tabulating these data we find :-

4

2

5

3

7

that is to say :Basic Colours Secondary Colours

Yellow, positive colour-light--Sun . Blue, negative colour-penumbra-Moon . Red, intermediate colour-blood, life-Mercury . (Violet, authority, balancing the yellow of the Sun-Jupiter . Green, obedience, daughter of Mercurian liberty-Venus . Orange, colour of fire, balancing the lunar blue-Mars . (Indigo, darker than the penumbra-night and evil-Saturn .

This explanation is somewhat daring . We leave the responsiblity for it with its author, and quote it simply as interesting .

TABLE OF THE PLANETS AND THEIR PROPERTIES (ACCORDING TO VARIOUS AUTHORS) DAY

SYMBOLS

Sun

Sunday

Luck Domination

White

Laurel Vine Lemon

Gold

Moon

Monday

Imagination Dreaminess Carelessness

Green

Poppy Tulip

I Silver

NAME

1 COLOUR

PLANT

METAL

SCENT

STONE

ANIMAL

SIN

QUALITIES

ORGANS

FATE Heads of State Princes Army Leaders Liberal Profession

Saffron Chrysolith Heliotrope Carbuncle

Lip Eagle

Pride

Science

Heart Arteries

Amber Iris

Pearl Diamond

Donkey Cat Swan

Laziness

Imagination

Brain Travellers Nerves Sleepwalkers Stomach Poets Sailors Fishermen

Mercury Wednesday Ingenuousness Blue Business abilities

Fir Valerian Camomile

Mercury

Benzoin Juniper

Agate jasper Sardonyx

Dog Monkey Parrot

Envy

Initiative

Lungs Limbs Tongue

Messengers Agents Business Men Orators Comedians

Venus

Friday

Love Beauty

Red

Leek Syringa Bean

Copper

Verbena Cinnamon

Turquoise Emerald

Goat Bull Dove

Luxury

Love

Stomach Kidneys Genitals Nipples Throat

Artists Perfumers Courtesans Jewellers

Mars

Tuesday

Strength Temper

Yellow

Absinthe I Iron

Garlic Briar

Amethyst Ruby

Wolf Cock

Temper

Courage Strong will

Face Muscles

Warriors Gunsmiths Surgeons Butchers Executioners Smiths

Jupiter

Thursday

Goodness Authority Height Wisdom

Purple

Violet Brass Figtree Mushroom

Aloe Mint

Sapphire

Pig Elephant Peacock

Greediness Wisdom Integrity

Liver Veins

Magistrates Priests Bankers Politicians Great business men

Saturn

Saturday

Bad luck Curse

Orange

Opium Aconite Cypress

Sulphur Poppy

Onyx Jet Obsidian

Camel Bat

Hypocrisy Patience Prudence Avarice

Bones Bile Bladder

Monks Sorcerers Theologians Farmers Miners

Lead

TABLE OF PLANETARY TYPES BOTH PHYSICAL AND MORAL AS DRAWN AND SUMMED UP AFTER MADAME DE THEBES JUPITER,

Figure . . Appearance Shoulders Head .. Eyes .. Nose .. Mouth . . Teeth .. Eyebrows .. Hair

Tall Fine Broad High Blue, smiling Medium Classic Very fine Regular Light brown

Beard

..

Fair, wavy

Voice

..

Pleasant

Lily and rose Crushed strawberry Peculiarities Premature obesity Qualities . . Generous Defects . . Giddy, unfaithful Character Cheery, bright Complexion Skin ..

Morals . . Abilities . . Signs ..

Charitable Government Without rancour

SATURN .

I Thin Tall

High Low Dull and fishy Big Large jaws Nasty Bushy Dull black Black and thin Hollow Dark, dull Brown, oily

i

SUN.

MERCURY .

MARS.

MOON.

VENUS.

Medium Fine Proportioned Expressive Light brown Fine and straight Medium Well set Well arched Golden, fine, silky Fair, curly

Small Tall Elegant Robust Broad Big Long face Short neck Black, bright I Grey or brown Slightly pointed ~ Aquiline Thin Sensual lips Small Shaped like saw Well arched Close set Dark chestnut Red

Very tall Weak Drooping Round face Blue Short, round Foolish Big, yellow Anyhow Tow

Ideal Perfect Proportioned Fine oval Liquid brown Regular Small Pretty Well arched Bright black

Almost black

Red

Thinnish

Slight, wavy

Nice tone

Weak, heady

Drawling

Soft

Swarthy Yellow and red

Pale Colour of honey

Strong and sonorous Congested Red

Milky white White

Mat pink Brown

Square chin

Fat chin

Great beauty

Modest Lazy

Amiable Wanton

Fantastic

Impatient

Weak-willed Quiet life Inconstant

Loves pleasure music Unfaithful

Prominent Good looking cheekbones Ambitious Honest Love of money Cruel

Mobile face Clever, worker Dishonest

I

Brave Great eater and drinker Magnanimous Intriguing Aggressive, Old and sad violent Dissimulating Chaste, generous Unscrupulous Loose liver Science, industry Fights, war Mines, farming Modern arts Taciturn Accident by fire Always lying Always frank

I

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Mixtures of astral fluids. As we have said, no one is ever under a single astral influence . Astrology, very truthful in this respect, states fully that on the one hand we must take the dominant into account, and on the other hand the resultant . We give here a few resultants, quoting from Desbarolles, who compares the combinations of the celestial signs-manual to the mixtures of colours on a palette . Saturn and Jupiter, if good, give gentleness and philosophy . Further the Sun adds to all the planets physical beauty and exact understanding . United to a good Mercury, Saturn brings mental and physical pleasures, even genius . If bad, the two stars produce dangerous types, for Saturn collects evil and Mercury emits it . If favourable, Mars tempers the Saturnian cowardice, turning it into prudence and courage ; if unfavourable, Mars accentuates defects already strong and drives to paradox and cynicism. Venus inclines Saturnians to jealousy, to debauch . Jupiter and the Sun combined bring happiness, glory and wealth . Jupiter and Mercury produce a quick intellect, especially good doctors, honourable and honoured men ; but if these two are in opposition (see farther on the chapter on appearances), the results are shallow boasters, noisy and of ill-repute. Combined with Mars, Jupiter gives daring tempered with wisdom (great warriors) or if evil, insolent, ferocious and rebellious types. Venus makes the Jupiterian cheerful, simple, truthful, a lover of life and of spending . The Sun strengthens the Mercurian eloquence, rectifies the lunar imagination, adds benevolence to the charm of Venus . Somewhat childish intellectuals stand under the double sign-manual of Apollo and Venus, as for instance Sterne and La Fontaine . The combined good influence of Mercury and Venus produces wonderful artists . Mars and the Moon mark famous navigators, as Columbus, Lapeyrouse and Cook, their evil influence corsairs . Mars and Venus favour amorous ardour . We can by ourselves and after consideration multiply and resolve these combinations . See also, farther on in the chapter on Physiognomony, the views on this subject of M . Paul Jagot . IV The Signs of the Zodiac and the properties of the Constellations of the Zodiac The ring of the firmament, the circular zone whose centre is occupied by the Elliptic and which contains the twelve constellations through which the sun seems to travel in the course of a year is called in

ASTROLOGY

69

Astronomy the Zodiac, name taken in fact from Astrology which described its twelve parts, corresponding to the twelve months, by twelve signs called zodiacal signs .' Each of these signs therefore corresponds to a constellation . Here are their names, signs and dates which should be remembered :SPRING

The Ram .-From 21st March to 19th April inclusive . Taurus .-From 20th April to 20th May inclusive . Gemini .-From 21st May to 20th June inclusive . SUMMER

Cancer.-From 21st June to 22nd July inclusive . Leo .-From 23rd July to 22nd August inclusive . Virgo .-From 23rd August to 21st September inclusive . AUTUMN

Libra .-From 22nd September to 21st October inclusive . Scorpio .-From 22nd October to 20th November inclusive . Sagittarius .-From 21st November to 20th December inclusive . WINTER

Capricorn.-From 21st December to 19th January inclusive . Aquarius .-From 20th January to 18th February inclusive . Pisces .-From 19th February to 20th March inclusive . Notes :1 . The signs run anti-clockwise . 2 . The astrological year commences in spring . 3. On the basis of the four elements, the ancients grouped the signs in the following manner :Assigned to Fire :-Ram, Leo, Sagittarius . Assigned to Earth :-Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn . Assigned to Air :-Gemini, Libra, Aquarius . Assigned to Water :-Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces . Important note .-It must always be remembered that the Zodiac, which is the terrestrial or ecliptic orbit, is in reality an ellipse represented by a circle . It is an imaginary closed curve, which is not, as many seem to think, the total of the constellations whose names are identified with its signs. For the precession of the equinoxes has the result that this identification takes place only once in about 25,000 years . Thus at the present time it is the constellation of Pisces which corresponds to the sign of the Ram . Thus it is not the signs of the Zodiac but the sections of the Zodiac which in all probability exert their influence, influence of zones rather than of stars, as Paul Flambart observes .

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4. The constellations consist of fixed stars, as opposed to the planets which the ancients looked upon as moving stars . It is understood that in Astronomy such stars are not in reality fixed stars, but as the whole of our Universe moves in a concerted movement, things happen much as if they were fixed, as they are found in the same places at the same periods ." Astrology limits itself to the influences of the seven visible planets and the twelve constellations of the Zodiac . According to whether at the moment of a birth the twelve signs of the Zodiac are in conjunction with this or the other planet, they modify (for good or for evil) the portents of such planet . The following are their astrological properties :The Ram.-It governs spring . It walks at the head of the flock of the stars (whence its name) . It is ruled by Mars. Its day is Tuesday, its colour red, its stone the amethyst . Its influence is bad during the whole of its thirty days, or rather its thirty degrees (it must be remembered that the 360 days or degrees of the Zodiac give thirty days or degrees for each of the twelve signs) unless its entry into the (astrological) new year takes place on its own day . Being a Martian constellation, it rules the instincts, the forces, gives to its subjects a very strong will, an active intellect, abundant vitality, irritability, generosity, affection . In short the influence of Mars is benignant to it. It presides, physically, at everything which concerns the head . Predictions (Ely Star) :-Variable luck, conjugal differences, broken friendships, few or no children, situation not easily settled, many enemies and jealousies . Taurus.-(Venus, Friday, green, agate), symbol of agricultural fertility, rules work and gain, and consequently favours the latter provided the former perseveres. Venus gives it gaiety, amiability and fecundity . It governs the neck. Taurus makes self-opinionated, difficult to get on with, grudgebearing, but gives upright and inquiring mind, capable of ruling, conservative in thoughts and things. Predictions :-Relatively calm life, disturbed only by disputes due to the obstinacy of the subject himself . Many but comparatively useless friends. Life long if the subject itself does not shorten it . Gemini (Mercury, Wednesday, grey, beryl) rule the affections, develop filial love and friendship into devotion and even an excessive selflessness. Gemini symbolise union, the mother of strength . Through this constellation Mercury gives to its subjects intelligence, initiative, and also some amount of inconstancy . This sign governs the shoulders and the arms . Love of arts, sciences. ' The variation is negligible.

ASTROLOGY 71 Predictions :-Unstable position . Worries and troubles . Long unions. Enemies and connections themselves to be feared . Cancer (Moon, Monday, blue, emerald) is also called Crab . Its subjects, delicate, are predisposed to mediocrity . They are generally presumptuous, impressionable, romantic, paradoxical . Its women are probably fertile . Presiding over the lungs, the chest, the stomach, it inclines to cancer and tuberculosis .

D O ------------

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE PLANETS AND THE ZODIAC

Settled life . Quick wit. Discretion . Predictions :-luck in the latter part of life . Happy family life . Leo (Sun, Sunday, yellow, ruby) favours strength, courage, generosity, devotion, fidelity, firmness, strong feelings . Persons marked by it are ambitious, strong-minded, keen on honours . It rules the heart and the back, and predisposes to pleurisy, palpitations, fever.

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Sudden anger but quickly over . Love of wealth and pleasure . Strong and considered passions . Burning opinions . Predictions :-Wealth acquired unaided but apt to be lost unexpectedly . Brothers, sisters or relatives harmful . Long illnesses. Family embroilments. Possibility of honour and fame . Friends numerous but unimportant . Enemies who will tire . Rheumatic and geniculary pains . Disease of the bladder probable . Virgo (Mercury, Wednesday, grey, jasper) . She comes, crowned with corn, and rules the womb, the intestines, the genital organs . She produces sympathetic sanguine types, gives prudence, tact and ingenuity, love of economy and ability in business . This sign inclines towards virtue and the liberal arts, also towards agriculture . Predictions :-Wealth acquired by brains . Mysteries or irregularities in the family. Difficulties in love . Struggle before being able to live one's own life . Frequent journeys . Few and changeable friends . Hidden enemies . Libra (Venus, Friday, green, diamond) . Period of equable days, governs the kidneys and threatens bladder trouble . Constellation of justice and equity, it favours artistic minds, the amorous passions of women, contracts and connections . Its subjects sometimes incline to a fallacious fraternity, a routine which confines them to inferior positions . They lack dash and daring, but they are gentle and of good life . Predictions :-Instability of the family . Change of position in middle life. Highly placed protectors . Scorpio (Mars, Tuesday, red, topaz) has a bad hearing, for it is a season abounding in illnesses . Governing the sexual parts and the matrix, it predisposes to fistula ; its subjects are generally energetic, tenacious, spiteful, jealous . Scorpio is a sign of fights, duels, accidents, lawsuits, treachery . It endows with various excesses . Predictions :-Scorpio always promises, for some day or another, money, and often a large family, sometimes two marriages, one of which is not very happy . Heart trouble due to a cruel loss by death . Good position late in life . Sagittarius (Jupiter, Thursday, blue, turquoise) . Symbol of the date of hunting, governs the hips, causes falls from a horse, makes the character enigmatic, gives love of hunting, of science or art, energy, an ordered mind . The influence of Jupiter adds wisdom, honour, discrimination . Character remaining cheerful . Simple manners . Mistrust and timidity. Calm passions . Predictions :-Family embroilments . Short but frequent illnesses . Numerous removals . Useful social connections . Relentless slanders . Capricorn (Saturn, Saturday, black, onyx) makes its organs delicate, that is, the knees ; its types are mournful, with thin face, impassive, but

ASTROLOGY

73 concealing ambition, the desire for honours, egoism, arrivism, the use of doubtful expedients ; this sign predisposes to broken bones, rheumatism and skin diseases . Inconstancy of the affections . Not very prolific . Quickness and good eyesight. Predictions :-Hostile family . Great struggles . Mobility of life . Several marriages. Aquarius (Saturn, Saturday, black, sapphire) . Its weak organs are calves and ankles . Dangers : Cramp and spasmodic illnesses . This constellation, dangerous to travellers by sea, gives to its subjects discretion, fidelity, thoughtfulness, mysticism, a love of the fine arts, benevolence in the ruler, submission in the ruled . The constitution of people born under this sign (which predisposes to altruism) is good . Graceful mind. Firm will . Patience and hard work . Strong and lasting passions . Predictions :-Danger of wounds . Marriage with artist . Falls and rises alternating . Helping friends . Expensive removals . Pisces (Jupiter, Thursday, blue, chrysolith) . This sign governs feet and toes. It predisposes to ulcers and arthritis . It makes indolent, timid, variable, gentle . It foretells danger, ruin, treachery, dishonour, violent death . It is a maleficent star giving to its subjects a leaning to hypocrisy and slander . It has been said to be " the Hell of the Zodiac." Predictions :-Threat of treachery . Violent events in the family ; but high positions may be hoped for, also the favour of the great and lasting friendships . By way of reference we insert here a small table showing the mythological connections of the signs of the Zodiac and a summary of their influences . We found it in an old" Art of Foretelling the Future" of 1821, signed by Aldegonde Perenna " Provengal Sybil ."

Libra . Themis, Love of lawsuits . Scorpio . Orion was changed by Diana into this animal . Malice and knavery.

Sagittarius . Chiron the Centaur. Love of hunting and travelling . Capricorn . The Goat Amalthea . Thoughtlessness and impulsiveness . Aquarius . Ganymede . Gaiety . Pisces. The Dolphins who carried Amphitrite . Gentleness . Ram. The one of the Golden Fleece . Violent emotions. Taurus. Jupiter carrying off Europa . Boldness and strength . Gemini. Castor and Pollux . Friendship. Crab. The one which bit Hercules . Bothers . Leo. The lion of the Nemean Forest . Courage. Virgo. Astrea . Chastity .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES It will be seen that the ascriptions of this method are not very profound. Too many popular books do not go beyond interpretations of this kind, which obviously do not overtax the brain of the commentators.

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V The Twelve Houses of the Sky The annual course of the sun in Astrology is divided into twelve stages corresponding to the twelve months, to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. These twelve stages constitute twelve divisions which are named dwellings, houses of the sky, or more usually solar houses . They are described merely by numbers, and to each of them is attached an influence which is exercised no longer solely on the human being itself, but on his life and all the events connected therewith . We give below the table of their meanings . First House . It relates to the vital forces and personal connections, that is to say our temperament, our qualities, defects and flaws, to our general happiness or unhappiness, to the success or failure of our existence which, in one word, may be successful or spoilt . It is the House of Life . Second House . This corresponds with our expectations of successoccupations, posts, employments, their profits or their benefits, in one word the material success of our work. It is the House of Wealth. Third House . It is the house of the relations between brothers and sisters and the consequences of these relations . It is the House f Collaterals . Fourth House . Financial position, means of existence, inheritances, and consequently near relatives, intimate family life . It is the House of the Family . Fifth House. Our children . Our affairs of the heart . Our morality, our speculations, games, pleasures, love affairs . Our faith and our trust . According to Mme . de Thebes, it is above all the House of the Children. Sixth House . Informs us about our organic constitution, our health, our inferiors and our enemies . " It is the most important," says Ely Star . " Woe to him who at his birth finds one of the three bad signs (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces) in this solar house, especially if one of the three evil planets (Moon, Mars or Saturn) comes to aggravate the malign influence of this sign . Even if he should be born on the steps of a throne, with this fatidic planetary appearance he is condemned o

ASTROLOGY 75 to an unhappy life or to a disastrous end ! " It is the House of Health, says Mme . de Thebes more neatly and more simply . Seventh House . It is that of matrimonial contracts and associations, of lawsuits and enmities, of all that belongs to our relations with strangers . It is what according to various authors is called in one word

the House of Marriage . Eighth House . It gives information on the struggles and obstacles

of the life of the subject : lawsuits, vexations, separations, divorces, mournings, wounds, accidents . It marks the professions which in some way or other are connected with death, doctors, surgeons, butchers, executioners, and also spiritists, mediums, occultists. It similarly governs the consequences of death, such as wills, legacies, dowries, and further the forebodings, fatalities, relations with the Beyond .

It is the House of Death . Ninth House. The ruler of the intellect-capability, ambition,

journeys and their results, dreams and prophecies, religion and occult sciences . It is specially concerned with Churchmen . It is the House

of Religion . Tenth House . Of extreme influence, called the Centre of the Sky, because it is at the top of the Circle . It is the home of wealth, of

honours, of glory. It gives information as to the part which the subject will play on the stage of the world, whether brilliant or modest, ephemeral or lasting . It marks the Heads of the State, in . the male horoscope the father of the family, in the female the mother . It is

the House o f Honours. Eleventh House . It governs our friends and our social relations,

indicates the kind and the degree of sympathy which is shewn to us, the value of those who protect or lead us . It also throws light on our plans and our hopes . It is the House of Friendship . Twelfth House. It is that of misfortune, of difficulties, of ruin, of exile and imprisonment, of trials, scandal, social disaster . It is called the Hell of the Zodiac in comparison with the Sixth which faces it and is called the Paradise of the Zodiac . The beneficent planets which dwell in this accursed lodging bring to it but small and transitory consolation . It is the House of Enemies . The solar Houses are fixed in the sky . Thus they receive in turn the twelve signs of the Zodiac with their influence . Thus the Ram is found at the start in the first house, then in April it passes to the second, in May to the third, etc . On each it sheds its rays. Whence the necessity, as will be seen farther on, when casting a horoscope, of marking the place of the signs in the various " houses of the sky."

THE

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Below are two practical designs showing at a glance the place of the solar houses and helping in the casting of a horoscope :SOUTH

EAST

~ ,% & Tip'A IW AVIV

6M,

WIN

'ilk

-WEST

FJd160W'i4

NORTH CONFIGURATION OF THE TWELVE SOLAR HOUSES.

It will be seen on the one hand that the order of the houses must be read anti-clockwise, and on the other hand the relative importance of the placing of the houses will be seen :At the top is the 10th house, the royal dwelling of the horoscope, the most important symbol-the general part which the subject plays on earth. Immediately opposite, at the nadir, the 4th house, governing the private life, whilst the 10th house orders the public life . At No . 1, the first house (the Ascendant) shows the temperament and the personal affairs . At No. 7, facing it, help or hindrance for these initiatives . At No . 6, the Paradise of the Zodiac ; at No. 12, facing it, the Hell of the Zodiac. These oppositions, these symmetries are remarkable, and show the depth of the meaning of the hermetic philosophy of the Astrologers . VI

Relative Positions and Cycles The relative positions are the places which the planets occupy in relation to each other . The ancients attached considerable importance to this, and had classified them as follows :1. Conjunction .-Meeting of planets in the same solar house . 2. Twelfth position.-Distance of 30 degrees between two planets . 3 . Sixth position.-Distance of 60 degrees between two planets . 4. Quadrature .-Distance of 90 degrees between two planets .

ASTROLOGY 5. Third positionDistance of 120 degrees between two planets . 6. Fifth position .-Distance of 150 degrees between two planets . 7 . Opposition .-Distance of 180 degrees between two planets .

77

Meaning of these positions :Quadrature and opposition :-bad . Third and sixth :-favourable . Twelfth, fifth and conjunction :-indifferent. We shall return to this later on . Some astrologers had further considered the division of Time into cycles of thirty-six years, each dominated by one of the seven planetary " spirits ." In case anyone might like to use it in the casting of a horoscope, Ely Star drew up the table from 1729 to 1908 . It shows the following cycles' to which we have added one for the present time :Cycle of the Sun :-From 1729 to 1764 . Cycle of Saturn :-From 1765 to 1800 . Cycle of Venus :-From 1801 to 1836 . Cycle of Jupiter :-From 1837 to 1872 . Cycle of Mercury :-From 1873 to 1908. Cycle of Mars :-From 1909 to 1944. (Is this the reason of the Great War ?) He gives details of each cycle . We will confine ourselves to the two last :Cycle of Mercury (1873 to 1908) . Mercury, 1873 to 1880, etc ., every seven years . The Moon, 1874 to 1881, etc . „ Saturn, 1875 to 1882, etc . „ Jupiter, 1876 to 1883, etc . „ „ Mars, 1877 to 1884, etc. „ The Sun, 1878 to 1885, etc . Venus, 1879 to 1886, etc . „ Cycle of Mars (1909 to 1944) . Mars, 1909 to 1916, etc. „ The Sun, 1910 to 1917, etc . „ Venus, 1911 to 1918, etc . „ Mercury, 1912 to 1919, etc . „ The Moon, 1913 to 1920, etc . „ Saturn, 1914 to 1921, etc . „ Jupiter, 1915 to 1922, etc . „ „ „

The year 192 .5 of the cycle of Mars is thus dominated by Venus . 1 The planets governing the cycles are placed in contrary sequence to the days of the week .

In each cycle the initial planet is the same as that of the cycle . The sequence of the planets is always the same .

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VII

The Decani and their Properties The astrologers give added precision to the astral influences by dividing the period of thirty days ruled by each sign of the Zodiac into three decades, each of which receives the magnetism of a separate planet which takes charge of it and becomes its " Lord ." These decades are called decani (at bottom the same word) . We have drawn up a table below of the twelve signs each divided into three decani with the name of its planetary Lord . SIGN

DuRATIoN of DECANus

The Ram

1st decanus from 21st March to 30th March 2nd decanus from 31st March to 9th April 3rd decanus from 10th April to 19th April

Taurus

1st decanus from 20th April to 30th April 2nd decanus from 1st May to 10th May . . 3rd decanus from 11th May to 20th May . .

Gemini

from 21st May to 30th May . . from 31st May to 9th June . . from 10th June to 20th June

Mars Sun Venus

..

Mercury Moon Saturn

..

Jupiter Mars Sun

let decanus from 21st June to 1st July . . 2nd decanus from 2nd July to 11th July . . 3rd decanus from 12th July to 22nd July . .

Cancer Leo

1st decanus 2nd decanus 3rd decanus

LORD of DEoANus

.

Virgo . .

..

1st decanus from 23rd July to 1st August .. 2nd decanus from 2nd August to 11th August . . 3rd decanus from 12th August to 22nd August

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

. . 1st decanus from 23rd August to 1st September . . Sun 2nd decanus from 2nd September to 11th September Venus 3rd decanus from 12th September to 21st September Mercury

Libra . .

1st decanus from 22nd September to 1st October . . 2nd decanus from 2nd October to 11th October .. 3rd decanus from 12th October to 21st October . .

Moon Saturn Jupiter

Scorpio

1st decanus from 22nd October to 31st October . . Mars 2nd decanus from 1st November to 10th November Sun 3rd decanus from 11th November to 20th November Venus

ASTROLOGY SIGN

Sagittarius

1st decanus 2nd decanus 3rd decanus Capricorn . . 1st decanus 2nd decanus 3rd decanus Aquarius 1st decanus 2nd decanus 3rd decanus Pisces . . 1st decanus 2nd decanus 3rd decanus

DuBATIoN OF DEOANus

79 LORD OF DEOANUS

from 21st November to 30th November from 1st December to 10th December from 11th December to 20th December from 21st December to 30th December from 31st December to 9th January from 10th January to 19th January from 20th January to 29th January from 30th January to 8th February from 9th February to 18th February from 19th February to 28th February . . .. .. from 1st March to 10th March from 11th March to 20th March . . . .

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Let us sum up the properties of the decani according to the little book of Professor Enigma, beginning with the astronomical year. I January.-(a) From 81st December to 9th January :-2nd decanus of Capricorn. Lord of the Decanus :-Mars . Capricorn makes his subject ambitious, self-willed, capable and persevering . Mars adds to this fearlessness in attaining his aim, and the taste for battle. We may foretell an advantageous marriage, but possibilities of divorce and of various accidents . However, the planet governing the day of nativity, that is the Lord of the Day, brings modifications . Thus Jupiter tempers the violence of the being born under the Martian sign-manual of Capricorn, and also his ambition ; he gives some wisdom and inclines to integrity. Venus under the sign of Capricorn foretells amorous and domestic difficulties, but also successes, legacies, good luck . Saturn adds to the above-named influences envy and egotism, servility towards superiors and harshness towards inferiors, and threat of an unhappy end . The Sun brings temporary high protection and the risk of doubtful health . The Moon, mistress of the day, will, as may be guessed, incline towards great dreams, vanity, indolence . Mars will naturally double his influence, whence violence, great muscular strength, love of battle . Mercury will make the intellect gay, mocking, perhaps slanderous, with a love of eloquence and the occult sciences . (b) From the 10th to the 19th January :-3rd decanus of Capricorn, governed by the Sun as its Lord . General influence :-Pride, authoritativeness, discretion, mental power, delicate constitution, success in undertakings, high but unstable position .

For the reason already mentioned, and as will already have been observed, we make reservations on the outer form (height, colour of hair, etc.) given by the astrological data

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With Jupiter as Lord of the day, as always, added wisdom, a little melancholy, few irregular passions, marriage of reason. With Venus, ardour and inconstancy, amiability and charm, leanings towards luxury, licentiousness in the man, coquetry in the woman ; for both vanity, sexual diseases, numerous liaisons . With Saturn, obstinacy, sullenness, danger of neurasthenia, taste for manual labour, foresight, acquisition of land, little love, celibacy . With the Sun, its influence doubled, therefore very beneficent, dignity, aptitude for command . With the Moon, much imagination, but little energy, fantastic mood and excess in enthusiasm and in discouragement . With Mars, quick impulse, heroism, jealousy . With Mercury, initiative, perspicacity and distrust . (c) From the 20th to the 29th January :-Aquarius (1st decanus) Venus. Expansiveness, confidence, affection, good health, lack of foresight . Influenced by Jupiter, indulgence, friendships, popularity, success through women ; by Venus, leaning to adultery, to pleasure, to thriftlessness, little effort and diligence ; by Saturn, thoughtfulness, meditation, restlessness, isolation, worries, hidden vices, unhappiness in love, taciturnity . By the Sun, mysticism, spiritist influence, fear of death and of the beyond ; by the Moon, fanciful mind, incompetence in the conduct of business, slowness, but posterity, sad ending of life ; by Mars, aggressive character, embroilments, rivalries, risk of violent death ; by Mercury, lack of scruples, tendency to theft, to treachery, to the exploitation of others . February.-(a) From the 30th January to the 8th February :Aquarius (2nd decanus) Mercury . Generally :-Sympathetic character, fine intellect, regular life, common sense. But Jupiter adds pride, incapacity for serious study, false judgment ; Venus the promise of gain by the Fine Arts, the Theatre or Song, good family relations ; Saturn intellectual powers, faithfulness, the promise of success in undertakings and connections ; the Sun power and guile ; the Moon a fertile imagination, leaning to sleepwalking, success in hazardous undertakings ; Mars lack of foresight, daring, the hatred of superiors, and yet military tastes ; Mercury finally will double his own influence so as to make life honest, without excess of happiness or unhappiness, average health, a happy and simple marriage, pleasant relations . (b) From the 9th to the 18th February (3rd decanus), Moon . Wild imagination bringing disappointments . Lack of initiative, easily influenced. However, Jupiter will have here, as usual, a beneficent influence, bring good luck, prosperity, good health, safe

ASTROLOGY

81 friendships, good fortune socially, in love and in finance ; Venus will add indolence, lack of foresight, source of reverses, bad luck in love for women ; Saturn will make the women irregular, the men sensual, but will give them a restraining prudence ; from the Sun will come selfconfidence, mixed with self-sufficiency ; the Moon will bring its fantastic note-Mars its bad instincts ; Mercury egotism, ruthlessness, hypocrisy . (c) From the 19th to the 28th or 29th February : first decanus of Pisces, with Saturn as Lord of this decanus. Here we have the worried type driven by anguish, for whom lie in wait relentless foes, unhappiness of all kinds, a tragic end, and worse still a lamentable reputation . If Jupiter intervenes, they will be proud, defiant, difficult, marrying badly ; their temperament will be harsh, stern, obstinate . They will have to beware of illnesses of the kidneys, the chest and the bones . If Venus comes, they will be anxious to please, have secret and romantic liaisons, low tastes, genital diseases, few or no children . If Saturn rules, the tragedy of their lot will be doubled. They will have everything to fear :-hatred, slander, ruin, a bad end, a poor and difficult occupation, an unhappy marriage, in short a life full of trials . But with the Sun a little less bad luck, but sudden changes, cunning but not very powerful enemies, strength in fight, a sternness inclining them towards philosophy and religion. Under the Moon, their life will probably be unsettled, their mood contemplative and fairly cheerful, they will be sociable, and probably reach a ripe old age in the country . If Mars rules, this belligerent planet will give them rough manners, obstinacy, love of drink, little taste for family life, vehement but short liaisons. If Mercury, common sense will restrain them, they will have initiative, eloquence, occasional friends and some successes .

March.-(a) From the 1st to the 10th ; 2nd decanus of Pisces ; Jupiter. Success late in life, after critical periods . Irregular life . Thoughtlessness . Jupiter will be doubly beneficent at this period, incline towards happy family life, alert mind, open character, sobriety and kindliness . Venus will give an early marriage full of charm and graciousness, sensuality, and many children . Saturn will bring his leaning to distrust, envy, love of science, sensual love, avariciousness, will make youth difficult and hard working, help in the acquisition of landed property. The Sun will try to give calm in obscurity, useful friendships, confidence, but will allow lack of foresight to subsist. The Moon will bring her discouragements, her neurasthenia, her indecision and her diffidence . Mars will always have his genius for quarrels, biliousness, sudden anger, jealousy, extravagance . And Mercury his lack of fine feeling, his self-

82 THE OCCULT SCIENCES restraint, his commercial abilities, his taste for vice which hides under honest appearances . (b) From the 11th to the 20th ; 3rd decanus of Pisces and their lord Mars . A troubled and original life, made up of pride and indolence . Jupiter will prevent sane judgment and bestow a fatal ambition made of inefficient and vain self-esteem, intelligence but also laziness, skill without flexibility. Success is not very probable in either sex. Venus will be worse, infuse sensuality on top of the indolence, give the women a dangerous beauty, an inordinate love of pleasure, a constant infidelity, a predisposition to sexual diseases . Saturn will supply an exacting, malevolent and diplomatic imperiousness, a ferocious arrivism, and in their support, energy, activity, powerful relations . The Sun will harmonise these dispositions both physically and morally -uprightness, chivalry, generosity, devotion . The Moon will deepen the indolence and carelessness, the taste for travel, for petty love affairs ending in tired distaste . Mars will give exactitude of outlook, clever hands, aptitude, independence, violent love affairs, leaning towards fighting and sports, taste for iron industries . Mercury will supply his materialistic, pleasure loving, superficial, hypocritical mind, quick at imposing on his inferiors, his harsh, distrustful, inquisitive and wild nature. (c) From the 21st to the 30th March :-Ram, first decanus, dominated by Mars . The astrological year starts in the circle of the Zodiac on the 21st March. Those who are born under this sign will have vitality, strength, obstinacy, impatience, daring, bravery . Jupiter will add good health-bringing cheerfulness, self-confidence, imperious will, activity ; Venus fervent and somewhat romantic feelings, coquetry and vanity ; Saturn slowness of intellect and taciturnity ; the Sun integrity and love of peace, strength and brilliant faculties the Moon her customary originality made up of imagination and prodigality ; Mars daring and temper ; Mercury acuteness and eloquence .

April .-(a) From the 31st March to the 9th April, 2nd decanus of the Ram with the Sun . Who says Sun says nobility, conscience, success, respect . If Jupiter intervenes, benevolence, integrity, firmness, in the case of women leaning towards free union . If it is Venus, her charm, her goodness, faithfulness and the love of art . If it is Saturn, prudence, daring, avariciousness . If it is the Sun, doubling of the initial good influence . In the case of the Moon, trouble by reason of leanings towards laziness and luxury. In the case of Mars, boldness, irritability

ASTROLOGY 83 and vanity, but activity, intelligence, leading to fortune. If it is Mercury, his persuasive eloquence, perverted love and very liberal ideas . (b) From the 10th to the 19th April, 3rd decanus of the Ram, Venus . Venus foretells beauty, charm, modesty, moral pleasures . Jupiter presupposes a rich and well-matched marriage, influential connections ; Venus wealthy connections, but in the woman misconduct ; Saturn perverseness, impotence and hatred : the Sun its customary good qualities ; the Moon her eternal chimeras and her lack of balance ; Mars guile and disappointments ; Mercury dislike of love and the family, leanings towards mystery and fear of death . (c) From the 20th to the 30th April, first decanus of Taurus, Mercury . Taurus means fertility, perseverance, intelligence, strong will. Jupiter modifies this sign by adding to it self-restraint and a domineering spirit . Venus brings her bad qualities of coquetry, risk of desertion and poverty. Saturn demands constant hard work and threatens various troubles . The Sun here is very favourable . The Moon is satisfied with bringing changeableness, Mars reverses, Mercury very varied abilities and irrational feelings .

May.-(a) From

the 1st to the 10th, 2nd decanus of Taurus, Moon. From this month on we will be shorter, so as not to overburden this chapter, for it will have been understood from the preceding particulars, that the same planets always, according to their own influence, modify the general influence somewhat in a direction which can from now onward be guessed at . Here, for instance, we have predictions of bizarre and capricious luck. If Jupiter intervenes it will be to bring his spirit of justice, calm and goodwill . If it is Venus, wise love and taste for art . If it is Saturn, his bad qualities . If the Sun, his well known influence for good. If the Moon, her fancies . If Mars, his violent nature . If Mercury, his adaptability . (b) From the 11th to the 20th, 3rd decanus of Taurus, Saturn . Saturn means fatality, reverse and ruin . With Jupiter Fate improves, also with Venus, the Sun and Mercury if they are lords of the day . With the Moon and Mars, bad omens. With Saturn, doubling of the evil prediction . (c) From the 21st to the 30th, Gemini (1st decanus), Jupiter . This decanus with Jupiter is favourable . And if in addition Jupiter is lord of the day of nativity, the good omen is strengthened . Venus, the Sun, Mercury, are good . Even the Moon is for once benign . Saturn reminds of the difficulties of life, Mars brings his bravery and his quarrelsome tendencies .

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June.-(a) From 31st May to 9th June, Gemini (2nd decanus), Mars .

Sorrows, embroilments, annoyances, solitary old age . Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury do not bring any change . Mars redoubles his fury . Venus softens . The Moon's influence as usual . (b) From 10th to the 20th, Gemini (3rd decanus), Sun . Good omen by reason of the Sun bringing his high protection, especially if he is, in addition, master of the day . Jupiter, Venus and Mars are favourable. The Moon considerably decreases the splendour. Saturn also is full of treachery . Mercury is as always the utilitarian planet which helps in commercial success . (c) From 21st June to 1st July, first decanus of Cancer with Venus . Cancer makes fantastic, effeminate, of delicate health . Jupiter adds powers of attraction and softens the destiny, also the Sun and Venus . Saturn is evil . The Moon threatens, also Mars and Mercury . July.-(a) From the 2nd to the 11th, Cancer (2nd decanus), Mercury . Mercury in and through Cancer loses his good influence and engenders versatility . But Jupiter can restore the love of work, Venus that of devotion and faithfulness, the Sun that of nobility of the soul . On the other hand Saturn and Mars bring evil, the Moon make prodigal and inconstant, Mercury mediocre and sedentary . (b) From the 11th to the 22nd, Cancer (3rd decanus), Moon . Usual influence of the Moon . Jupiter modifies it in the direction of strength, the Sun in that of nobility and initiative . Venus, Mars, and especially the Moon if mistress of the day, strengthen it . Saturn adds his perverse instincts . (c) From the 23rd July to the 1st August, Leo (1st decanus), Saturn as Lord. Courage and bravery. Judgment and firmness. Jupiter, Venus and the Sun very favourable. Saturn here gives mistrust and diffidence, the Moon ostentation and lack of restraint, Mars jealousy and lust, Mercury infidelity but activity . August.-(a) From the 2nd to the 11th, Leo (2nd decanus), Jupiter . All omens are good, both of the decanus and its Lords of the Day . Venus, however, brings her excesses, the Moon her indolence, and Mars his lack of discipline . (b) From the 11th to the 22nd, last decanus of Leo, with Mars . Mars always foretells annoyances arising from rivalries . Jupiter, Venus, the Sun and Mercury are favourable . Saturn and the Moon disturb life . Mars redoubles his fury . (c) From 23rd August to 1st September, Virgo (first decanus), the Sun.

ASTROLOGY 85 A fortunate destiny is promised under this double sign, which is strengthened if the Sun is Lord of the day, and also by Jupiter, by Venus in spite of her taste for luxury, by Saturn in spite of his melancholy, the Moon despite her laziness, Mars despite some troubles, Mercury in spite of his scepticism . September.-(a) From the 2nd to the 11th September, Virgo (2nd decanus) and Venus . Also fortunate lot, but latish in life . All the planets are beneficent, in spite of the fact that the influences of Venus are excessive, and that Mars foretells many lacks of self-restraint . (b) From the 12th to the 21st, Virgo (3rd decanus) with Mercury . Good destiny with all the lords of the day, except Saturn the severe, the venturesome Moon, Mars and his sensuality . (c) From 22nd September to 1st October, 1st decanus of Libra, with the Moon. Prosperous destiny, although possibly Saturn will bring sorrow in love, Mars his everlasting quarrels, and Mercury his versatility . October .-(a) From 2nd to 11th, 2nd decanus of Libra, and Saturn . Bad streak, the evil of which is increased by Saturn, but which Jupiter softens by his intelligence and his goodness, the Sun by his wisdom, but Venus is perverse, Saturn greedy and depraved, the Moon eccentric, Mars altogether in discord, Mercury morose, and they do not improve this decanus . (b) From the 12th to the 22nd, 3rd decanus of Libra, and Jupiter . The good omen can be guessed . But we must fear Venus and her disappointments, the savage Saturn, the diffident and undecided Moon, Mars the over-impetuous . (c) From 22nd to 31st, 1st decanus of Scorpio, Mars its Lord . A fatal and maleficent decanus . Violence, hatred, jealousy, treason . Even Jupiter foretells mourning and lawsuits, Venus feminine revenges and reverses of fortune, Mercury severe enmities, Saturn doubles the ill-luck foretold ; the Moon, however, promises enduring love, and the Sun dries all tears. November.-(a) From the 1st to the 10th, Scorpio (2nd decanus), the Sun. The Sun does not succeed in dispersing the clouds, even when Lord of the day . Jupiter is better, and helps to surmount obstacles . But Venus, Saturn drive towards evil ; the Moon brings discord and revenge, Mars revolt and indiscretion, Mercury distrust and enmity . (b) From the 11th to the 20th, Scorpio (3rd decanus), Venus . Similar dangers, which are accentuated by Venus on her day, by Saturn, Mars, Mercury the indelicate . The Sun, Jupiter and the Moon intervene favourably .

86

THE OCCULT SCIENCES (c) From the 21st to the 30th, 1st decanus of Sagittarius under the royalty of Mercury . On the whole a good omen . Only Mars is aggressive and obstinate, the Moon extravagant . December.-(a) From the 1st to the 10th, 2nd decanus of Sagittarius, under the lunar empire. Also a good sign-manual, supported by the Lords of the day . But Saturn gives excessive ambition, the Moon excessive pusillanimity, Mars excessive daring. (b) From the 11th to the 20th, 3rd decanus of the same, with Saturn . Less pleasing, on account of Saturn, who, however, is attacked by Jupiter and Mercury . But Venus drives to debauch, the Moon to fancies, Mars to violence . Saturn, when Lord of the day, causes the worst trouble. (c) From the 21st to the 30th, 1st decanus of Capricorn, Jupiter . Wholly excellent, if the Moon and Mars do not intervene . VIII

The Lords of the Hour Just as Astrology gives a Lord to the Cycle, to the Year, to the Sign of the Zodiac, to the Month, to the Decanus and to the Day it gives one to the Hour . And thus we find again the law of analogy, and in addition, with its seven influences, the law of the septenary. See the Table, below, of the Lords of the Hour . THE LORDS OF THE HOUR HOURS 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

CLt Z

Z

0

MONDAY

TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

SATURDAY SUNDAY

Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Mars Sun Venus Mercury

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter

Jupiter Mars Sun Venus

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn

Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

Sun Venus Mercury Moon

Sun Venus Mercury Moon

Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Mars Sun Venus Mercury

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter

Jupiter Mars Sun Venus

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn

Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

Sun Venus Mercury Moon

Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Mars Sun Venus Mercury

Mercury Moon Saturn JuDiter

Jupiter Mars Sun Venus

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn

ASTROLOGY HOURS

MONDAY

TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

13

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn

Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

Sun Venus Mercury Moon

Jupiter Mars Sun Venus

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter

Jupiter Mars Sun Venus

14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24

4 0 ~0

Zr,

87 FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Mars Sun Venus Mercury

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter

Jupiter Mars Sun Venus

Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

Sun Venus Mercury Moon

Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Mars Sun Venus Mercury

Mercury Moon Saturn Jupiter

Venus Mercury Moon Saturn

Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun

Sun Venus Mercury Moon

Moon Saturn Jupiter Mars

Mars Sun Venus Mercury

SUNDAY

Ix

General Remarks as to the Horoscope We have now learnt to what astral influences a human being may be subject . Let us now see how they may be found in some individual by means of the casting of his horoscope, an operation which enables us to discover the magnetic condition of the sky at the moment of a birth, and which is also called Astrological Scheme . First of all, let us, however, make a few more remarks . To begin with it must be remembered that the horoscope is of two kinds, according to whether we deal with a scheme of nativity or with a scheme of actuality. It is possible, as a matter of fact, it is thought, to foretell not only a destiny in general, but also such part of the destiny as we wish to examine . We shall say a word later on as to this particular forecast which is difficult to obtain, subject to errors, and consequently less often asked for by the public and less liked by astromancers on whom it throws too heavy a responsibility . It is their very integrity which induces them to confine themselves to general data as regards the general position and the main events of a life . Secondly, let us remember that there are several ways of casting a horoscope. We will go through them rapidly . Some astrologers as a matter of fact combine the rules of the Kabbala or the data obtained from onomancy with the drawing up of their schemes, that is to say they add the " fatidic circles," the numerical combinations arising from the name and Christian names of the client

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(onomancy) and the hermetic taroc . Others combine the result of the cards and the result of the stars into a kind of astro-cartomancy which is no doubt ingenious, but seems to us somewhat fantastic . Far be it from us to wish to criticise onomantic astrology . It can be carried out and is interesting. Professor Theano, who uses it, states that it is bound to arrive at the same results as the one of which we are about to speak . But it seems to us a useless complication of Astrology 1 ; it is liable to error if it is not applied strictly iri accordance with the subtle rules of Hermetism ; it runs the risk of proving nothing because it tries to prove too much . And further, if the influence of the stars, experienced for thousands of years, is real, to some extent physical, its study ought by itself to be sufficient, and it seems to us dangerous to mix it up with kabbalism, although we do not mean to say that outside it and in order to complete, corroborate, define the horoscope it should not be permissible to add onomantic or other interpretations. And we ourselves are so strongly in favour of these additions that we propose, as will be seen, to complete what we call the psycho prophetic portrait of a person by chiromantic, graphological, onomantic, kabbalistic and other data . But we repeat that with Luc Orion and other authors, we are of opinion that Astrology, with its physical, chemical and mechanical tests, which show us the action of the stars by reason of their size and their magnetism, has its own methods, its own bases of proof, its own processes of investigation and its own very definite realm . Before proceeding to the casting of horoscope we must say a word about relative positions and dignities. The rays of a star in coming to us collide with other dynamic rays which modify their intensity and their properties . The respective positions of the stars amongst themselves are called their relative positions (hereinafter called " aspects ") . In principle their number would be indefinite . It has been restricted to those which form the sides of regular diagrams . We have already named them . Let us return to them to explain more fully. The conjunction is a powerful aspect, cancelling the two influences of the adjoining stars, therefore excellent between two good stars, but to be dreaded between two bad ones . Thus the Sun + Jupiter is very favourable . Jupiter + Moon is beneficent, but to a less degree, the action of Jupiter inclining the selenic in a good direction . Mars + Saturn is exceedingly bad. The Sun + Mars indicate courage leading to victory . Jupiter + Mars will be the energy exercised in the performance of duty . Mercury + Venus shows a vacillating destiny, an excessive desire to please, etc . Various astrologers reject it entirely, in particular the mathematicians such as Mr. Chouasnard and the whole of the scientific school .

ASTROLOGY 89 Opposition and the square are bad, but less between beneficent planets than between maleficent planets. Between beneficent planets they counteract each other (reducing them, according to the Egyptians, to a seventh of their power) . The following table shows the oppositions of the Zodiac :Ram-Libra. Cancer-Capricorn . Taurus-Scorpio . Leo-Aquarius . Gemini-Sagittarius . Virgo-Pisces . The third and sixth positions have the same effect as the conjunction but in a less degree. A further remark :-It has been noticed that certain planets made their influence felt in constellations in which they did not stand, and that in those in which they stood their influence varied, being now increased, now diminished, now impeded. To these various states the name of dignities has been given, and the following table shows their positions (according to Toth) :PLANETS

THRONE

RISE

FALL

Exu.B

Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus Mercury Sun Moon

Capricorn and Pisces Sagittarius and Aquarius Ram and Scorpio Taurus and Libra Gemini and Virgo Leo Cancer

Libra Cancer Capricorn Pisces Virgo Ram Taurus

Ram Capricorn Cancer Virgo Pisces Pisces Scorpio

Cancer and Virgo Gemini and Leo Taurus and Libra Ram and Scorpio Sagittarius and Pisces Aquarius Capricorn

A planet is in rise when its power is over-excited (for good or for evil). A planet is in fall when its power is diminished for good, increased for evil . A planet is in exile when, being in a position opposite to its throne, it is weakened . A planet in its throne, that is to say in its normal position, has its normal influence. Finally, before starting on our practical work of horoscopy, let us give an easy method of finding the day of a nativity where it is not known . By referring to the table given here, which is a perpetual calendar, it will be sufficient to add the figure of the day of the month, the figure of the month, the figure of the year and the figure of the century . The total of these is the figure of the day required .

90

THE OCCULT SCIENCES PERPETUAL CALENDAR.

CENTURIES 1 -

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16till 14th Oct . 1582 and since 15th Oct. 17 1819 20 -

5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5

2 3 5 0 2

YEARS

01 29 57 85 02 30 58 86 03 31 59 87 04 32 60 88 05 33 61 89 06 34 62 90 07 35 63 91 08 36 64 92 09 37 65 93 10 38 66 94 11 39 67 95 12 40 68 96 13 41 69 97 14 42 70 98 15 43 71 99 16 44 72 100 17 45 73 101 18 46 74 102 19 47 75 103 20 48 76 104 21 49 77 105 22 50 78 106 23 51 79 107 24 52 80 108 25 53 81 109 26 54 82 110 27 55 83 111 28 56 84 112 except for 1700, 1800, 1900, instead of 5 . . .

DAYS OF THE MONTH

MONTHS

3 2 1 6 5 4 3 1 0 6 5 3 2 1 0 5 4 3 2 0 6 5 4 2 1 0 6 4

January . . . . Years underlined February . . . . Years underlined March April . . May . . June . . July . . August . . September October . . November December

1 2 2 1 3 0 4 6 5 5 6 4 7 3 8 2 9 1 10 0 11 6 12 5 13 4 14 3 15 2 16 1

5 6 2 3 2 6 4 1 6 1 0 5 2 0

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

0 8 5 4 3 2 1 0 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

DAYS

0 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13

6

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24

.. ..

Sunday. Monday . Tuesday . Wednesday . Thursday . Friday . Saturday .

I For instance, what is the day of a nativity which took place on the 14th July, 1889 ? Here is the table Figure of the day of the month 3 Figure of the month 6 Figure of the year 5 Figure of the century 0 C? , 14, figure of Sunday . 1 Sunday is the day looked for . X

Casting of the Horoscope of Nativity

With the information given above it will at last be possible for us to cast a horoscope . It will, in principle, be the one to which the

ASTROLOGY 91 name of Toth is given, because it was found engraved in the burial chamber of this Egyptian priest who lived under the fourth dynasty . But we have amended it (for it only included the Lords of the Day, of the Hour and of the Decanus) by adding the Lords of the Cycle, of the Year, of conception and of pregnancy (here they will be the Lords of the decanus of the month of conception and of the decanus of the 7th month of pregnancy) . SOYTH

EAST -

-WEST

NOIZT H THE ZODIAC IN REPOSE

These Lords are given in the preceding tables . But it is not enough to know them, we must place them in a Zodiac properly drawn up. The drawing up of the Zodiac consists of putting it into the position relative to the Earth in which it was, first, at conception, secondly at pregnancy, and finally at the birth . Let us say at once that generally one single drawing up of the Zodiac is considered sufficient, that of nativity . The planets of conception and of pregnancy are placed inside this. Let us start with the horoscope in repose, that is to say let us take

92

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

it on the first day of spring . In this case the circle of the Houses is situated in such a manner that House I coincides with the first constellation of spring which is the Ram, this latter itself coinciding with the point East of our diagram which gives the order, which must always be observed, of the Houses and of the signs of the Zodiac . Let us now draw up the horoscope . To do this we must, with the help of the information given by the movement of the sun through the Zodiac and the tables of the straight ascents, find the sign of the Zodiac which occupies the Zenith, that is to say House X, which is at the top of the circle . (We must not forget that the Houses themselves do not move ; House X, therefore will always be at the Zenith ; we shall only have to find which is the sign which corresponds to it) . It is well known that the circle of the Zodiac is divided into 860 degrees, which gives 12° or 30 degrees for each sign (or 10 for each decanus and 1 for each day, the astrological year being reckoned as 860 days instead of 365, a discrepancy without importance) . Therefore, knowing that the sun gives one degree a day, it is easy to find which degree of the sign the sun occupies on a given day . If for instance the date of nativity is the 26th August, the sun, which enters the sign of Virgo on the 22nd, will, on the 26th, be at the fifth degree of the sign. But to which solar cycle does this figure correspond ? In order to find this, we must consult a special table, called the table of the Straight Ascents . First we look for the degree of the sign ; we follow the horizontal line till we reach the column of the sign, and there we find the point of the annual solar cycle . Then, knowing the hour of the nativity, we turn it into minutes, remembering that a minute represents 40 degrees . Thus, for instance, 8 hours make 8 x 60 = 480 minutes or `--1° = 120 degrees . Thus also 7J hours make 7 x 60 + 80 = 450 minutes or 1121 degrees . Adding then the degrees of the hour to the degrees of the day, and taking the total into consideration, we look at the table of straight ascents for the figure nearest thereto ; then we look in this column for its sign. This is the sign we want . As to the degree, we find it by following horizontally the line in which was the number of which we have just spoken . For instance, a birth took place on 17th August, • 1872, at three o'clock in the evening :-, On this day, the Sun, which entered Leo on the 23rd July, is at the 26th degree thereof. Point of the annual cycle :-147.18. Number of degrees of the hour :-5 hours = 800 minutes = ° = 75 degrees .

ASTROLOGY 93 Total of the degrees :-147.18 + 75 = 222 .10 (corresponding column Scorpio 16th) . Therefore House X begins at the 16th degree of Scorpio . The remaining places follow . As CENTS A strictly exact table gives a figure in degrees and minutes for each degree and for each sign . But for general use an approximation as regards degrees is enough, as it is very rare that the discrepancy exceeds one degree . It is enough to remember that the Sun successively enters each sign 30 degrees later, that is to say it passed from Ram (0) to Taurus on the 30th degree, to Gemini on the 60th degree, to Cancer exactly on the 90th degree, to Leo on the 120th, etc . From which we obtain the following approximate table :TABLE OF STRAIGHT

Ci (~

p py'

w~

~

p H

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

x ~ 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89

o

.

o

x a

o a

~ D

w

a"

o ris

o

uC

H a

o

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119

120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145, 146 147 148 149

150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179

180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209

210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239

240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269

270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 298 297 298 299

300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329

O

'Pi

m pa 33( 331 33: 33: 339 331 33( 33' 331 331 34( 341 34: 34' 349 341 341 34' 341 341 354 35: 35: 35: 35 354 351 35' 351 351

94

THE OCCULT SCIENCES As to the placing of the planets into our drawn-up Zodiac, this was formerly done (we mean to say a few years ago) by the help of annual astrological almanacs published in England, which gave this with date, hour, minute, second . This was exact, but somewhat difficult to consult, and our table of straight ascents became insufficient for births outside Paris, as it required corrections as to latitude by means of another table called Table of Oblique Ascents . Astrologers who relied chiefly on the inscription of Toth and the work of Johan Glaser, have found an easier method which is as follows We place in the sign where it has its throne (in the case of a birth by day) or its domicile (in the case of a birth by night) the planet which appears more than once in the list which we have learnt to draw up, of the Lords of the Cycle, of the Year, of the Sign, of the Decanus, of the Day, of the Hour, of the Pregnancy, and of the Conception . It is obvious that one of the seven must be repeated at least twice, since there are eight Lords in play . We place the Master of the Day in House X, and the Lord of the Hour' into his constellation according to the following table (each of the 12 constellations corresponding to two hours) :Ram from 6 to 8 a .m. Taurus from 8 to 10 a .m. Gemini from 10 to 12 a.m. Cancer from 12 to 14 p.m. Leo from 14 to 16 p.m. Virgo from 16 to 18 p.m. Libra from 18 to 20 p.m. Scorpio from 20 to 22 p .m. Sagittarius from 22 to 24 p.m. Capricorn from 0 to 2 a .m. Aquarius from 2 to 4 a .m. Pisces from 4 to 6 a .m. The Lord of the Decanus of course goes into the Decanus ruled by him, just as the Lord of the Sign goes into his constellation . The Lords of the Cvcle and of the Year remain outside . Their individual influence is taken into account, but to a lesser extent than that of the other Lords . Once the planets are placed, we observe carefully and note their aspects and dignities in a little table which will be useful to check the interpretation which now alone remains to be made by referring to the meanings of the fixed and moving stars above set out . 2 1 When the hour is unknown, the middle hour is taken (that of noon). Also remember that the astrological day counts from noon to noon . The first 12 hours are therefore from noon to midnight, they are the evening hours ; the morning hours count from midnight to noon . In the case of these the date must therefore be put one day forward . 2 We admit that the method here set out is attacked by some astrologers . But we thought it better to simplify as much as ,possible, and to give mainly a general idea of Astrology. If an exact horoscope is required, it will therefore always be best to have it cast by a professional, as we advise later on .

ASTROLOGY

95

XI

The Horoscope of the Present In addition to the horoscope of nativity, it is possible to cast a horoscope of the present, that is to say, show to a person of whatever age the possibilities of his destiny for the current year or the following years. For this purpose it must be remembered that the Zodiac moves to the extent of one solar house each year . Therefore, in order to know which sign of the Zodiac will be in House I during the year in question, it is necessary, knowing the age of the client, in such year, to add 2 on to House XII, 3 on to House XI, 4 on to House X, etc., till the actual age. The sign at which we stop will be placed in House I for the intended consultation. Then the Zodiac will be properly drawn up (according to the method of Ely Star). The following method can also be adopted :-If the age does not exceed 12, count as above . It it does exceed 12, deduct this number as many times as possible, or (which comes to the same thing) divide the age by 12, and add to the remainder the order number of the sign under which the client was born (1 in the case of the Ram, 2 in the case of Taurus, 3 in the case of Gemini, etc .). The total will show which sign must be placed in House I . For instance, a man is born under Scorpio, which sign will be in House I on the 45th year ? We divide 45 by 12 = Quotient 3, remainder 9 (45 - 36 = 9). The Order number of Scorpio being 8, we add this to 9 and get 17 . But as there are only 12 signs, we deduct 12 from 17 . Remains 5 . Now 5 is the order number of Leo, Therefore, in his 45th year, the client will have Leo in his first house . The following table enables us to replace this calculation by a glance . At the following ages the sign of nativity passes :In House 1. „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „

I at XII at XI at X at IX at VIII at VII at VI at V at IV at III at II at

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

1 13 25 37 49 2 14 26 38 50 3 15 27 39 51 4 16 28 40 52 5 17 29 41 53 6 18 30 42 54 7 19 31 43 55 8 20 32 44 56 9 21 33 45 57 10 22 34 46 58 11 23 35 47 59 12 24 36 48 60

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 88 69 70 71 72

73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84

85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

years . years . years . years . years. years. years. years . years, years . years . years .

It therefore but remains to interpret the omens for the passing of the sign of nativity and the sign of the Zodiac through each house . These omens are too subtle for us to give them here, especially as, in

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 96 the opinion of Ely Star himself who gives them in his book The Mysteries of the Horoscope on the basis, as he says, of kabbalistic data, they must not be taken literally. He, however, states that it is possible to state exactly the fatal year of a life. This is perhaps going rather far. On the other hand Ely Star assures us that for everybody the 7th year and every succeeding 7th year are, to say the least, dangerous. If the reader will look at his own past, he will be able to say what he thinks of this statement . Some astrologers-among them Jean Maveric 1-go so far as to cast a daily horoscope . The aim of this " invention " is to follow day by day, even hour by hour, the influence of the stars on oneself by making the planetary system revolve on one's own scheme of nativity . For this purpose it is sufficient to mark with special pins on such scheme the movable planets step by step as they move . The tables (or almanacs) of Raphael give the positions of these celestial luminaries for every day of whatever year required . As the speed of the planets corresponds to their distance from the sun, it follows that the position of Venus or Mercury will have to be changed every day, that of Mars every two or three days, that of Jupiter once a week, etc . And on the scheme thus daily rectified as to the aspects, it will be possible to compute the possible alterations of destiny .

XII A " Scientific " Method We should be sorry to close our short treatise on Astrology without summing up one of the methods which claim to be absolutely scientific, of which we spoke just now . We will choose the best known one, that of Mr . Chouasnard (who also calls himself Paul Flambart) who cannot complain if we copy it-giving his name also . This is the sweet reward of notoriety ! A scheme of nativity, he says, must consist of three elements the representation of the sky at nativity, its interpretation, and finally the calculation of the periods of influence . Representation of the sky at nativity (according to given time and place). Having drawn up the traditional circle of the Zodiac, we place in it the planets and their declensions by consulting the Almanacs 1

The Key to the Daily Horoscope (published by Durville).

ASTROLOGY 97 of Raphael 1 which give their co-ordinates every day at noon 2. After this we place the Zodiac in position as at the moment of birth by reference to the meridian and the horizon at the place of birth (still with the aid of the tables of Raphael), and thus the Centre of the Sky or higher meridian, and the Ascendant or eastern horizon, are found . By extending them beyond the beam we obtain the division of the sky into four ; each quarter is divided into three parts, and we then obtain the domification (the division into 12 solar houses) . We place House I exactly above the Ascendant and number anti-clockwise . Finally we take into account the frequency of the data observed, and remember that Neptune takes about 165 years to travel through the Zodiac, Uranus 84 years, Saturn 29 years and a half, Jupiter 12 years, Mars 687 days, Venus and Mercury about a year, finally the Moon 27 days . Interpretation of the Sky at Nativity . It is based on the influence of the Zodiac, the Houses and the Planets . The Zodiac is a source of influence through the planets which are in it, through its own stars and through its space . The Houses have no influence of their own ; they are but the frames in which the planets which they contain exercise their influence . As to the planets, it is known that their influence shows itself in a fourfold form :---(l) Their own properties. These are known . But let us not forget to add those which Mr . Chouasnard suggests for Uranus and Neptune, not yet mentioned :-Uranus, originality, obstinacy, taste for the occult or for mathematics according to the aspect ; Neptune, predisposition to mediumship . (2) Aspects :-They are harmonious (or beneficent) in the third and sixth positions, discordant (or maleficent) in quadrature and opposition. (3) Their place in the Houses . (4) Their place in the Zodiac (see Table of Dignities) . Calculation of the periods of influence . Complicated, difficult. It is connected with the following three astrological elements :-direction, transits, solar revolutions . The direction between two points A and A' (this is the position of a star at two given moments) is the arc of daily movement computed on the celestial sphere between these two successive positions A and A' . There seems proof for the contention that the number of degrees in the arc of direction corresponds to a number of years of the life of the subject ready to receive what the author wittily calls " the influence then due ." And he gives as example with the horoscope of Gambetta who died at the age of 44 and 9 months, seemingly under the influence ' Sold by Foulsham in London . Formerly Durville in Paris used also to keep them, but " on account of the exchange " he no longer does so . They consist of a pamphlet published every year afresh, and are written in English only . I These co-ordinates can also be found in the Annual of the Office of Longitudes Knowledge of Times published in Paris, but this is more complicated than the Almanacs of Raphael .

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of several maleficent directions of the luminaries which converged about this time . The transits are the passing of the planets over the important points of the sky of nativity . " They provide the most manifest proof, statistically, of the influence of the planets on destiny," says Mr . Chouasnard . The solar revolution is the representation of the sky at the place of nativity at the exact moment when the sun returns to the same point of Zodiac at which it was at birth . A comparison with the sky of nativity gives the good or bad periods of the ensuing year . XIII Note on Onomantic Astrology During the progress of the present book some people have asked us, although they do not recommend it, to state at least the broad principles of the Astro-onomancy of Ely Star . We are too loyal not to comply with these wishes, but in case it is desired to apply the method of the celebrated astrologer, it will be absolutely necessary to have a copy of his Mysteries of the Horoscope' for it is not possible for us to condense 300 pages into 20 sufficiently explicit pages . The following gives in a few words the " Starian " system :Necessary for the casting of the horoscope by its means are the family name and the usual personal name of the client, and the exact date of his birth . Its main principle is that the horoscope is the synthesis of the arcana of nativity 2. We begin then by reducing kabbalistically into numbers the name and chief personal name of the client (by means of the rosicrucian alphabet) . Then we convert the date of birth into degrees by means of the thebaic calendar. The planet of the year (see special table) gives the fatidic circle which must be taken, always placing House I on the Zodiacal sign of nativity. We then draw up the genethliac scale (as to how this is done, see the said book) which gives 6 figures, one of which, the topmost, with its adjoining planets, will form House X. The name, personal name, etc ., constitute the remaining houses . Having drawn up the scale, and the circle of the year in question, we begin our researches on the particular circle, starting from a point specified by the decanus of nativity (see special table) . Having properly placed the Zodiac (the sign of nativity in House I), the scale before ' Published by H . Durville, 23 rue Saint-Merci, Paris . ' In all good faith we must add that the book in question enables to begin with the casting of a simple horoscope without onomancy, which may be added to it afterwards .

ASTROLOGY 99 our eyes, as well as the fatidic circle, we put in the planets kabbalistically (see the method in the book) with their degree of dignity, and we begin to find the meaning of the omens by grouping them in the 12 Houses . As will be seen, the pages at our disposal for the sketch of the science of Astrology are not sufficient to enable us to go at length into this method by describing the hermetic Taroc. But it would seem that marvellous results have been obtained from its use . XIV Simplified Astrology Some readers, discouraged perhaps by the above lengthy explanations and the different methods in use, will think it impossible to have even a rudimentary astrological forecast about themselves or those in whom they are interested . We will now suggest to them a method which, while not having the value as regards exactness of a properly cast horoscope, will yet give them some data sufficient to obtain a little light. But above all let them not purchase those popular handbooks which give the destiny of people " born in this or the other month." They will realize how dangerously false these forecasts are when they remember that the astronomic month does not correspond to a sign of the Zodiac . They should be content with observing, but they should at the very least observe, the following :-1 . The sign of the Zodiac presiding at the nativity and the Lord of that sign . 2 . The decanus of the sign of the Zodiac and the Lord of that decanus . 3. The planet ruling on the day of nativity . The present book will give them without any calculation the explanations corresponding with these influences . It will be enough to read them carefully and then to bring them into accord . For instance, what tendencies and what chances has a child called Germain, born on a Wednesday at the beginning of February ? We are in the 2nd decanus of Aquarius . We thus have the following influences :1 . That of the sign of the Zodiac, Aquarius, and its Lord, Saturn . 2. That of the Lord of the 2nd decanus of Aquarius, which is Mercury. 3. That of the Lord of the day, Wednesday, which is Mercury .

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Aquarius generally gives a sound constitution, firm will, love of work and enduring passions, but alternating falls and rises, and danger when travelling . Our Germain will therefore have to be careful when travelling about, and not be afraid of the ups and downs of life . A man warned is worth two. And a man who has Mercury twice in his horoscope has made a good start in the steering of his boat . He will very probably have an honest life, without excesses of joy, of sorrows, of honours . His personal name (as will be seen later on) is generally borne by persons of solid qualities. Saturn is here only the dominant of the sign and not the dominant of the subject ; therefore there is no reason to fear him overmuch . Germain will probably be intelligent, live a regular life, have common sense, marry well some day . But these are only vague predictions, although pleasant . It would be necessary to look at his hand and to read it ; this it will be possible to do thanks to our third chapter ; and his astral sign-manual would have to be corroborated by physiognomony of which we are going to speak immediately. Before going further we want to apologise for having been compelled to open with pages which are somewhat arduous . The reader should not be discouraged on this account : all that comes later will be much more easily understood, without being any less interesting : and the more he advances in his studies the more fascinated he will become, for they trend ever upwards towards astonishment and intellectual pleasure. One final remark : We have given a means of obtaining for oneself a summary statement of one's own personal astral influences, but we would strongly advise anyone who wants a serious horoscope to apply to the specialists in this exceedingly difficult science-the most difficult of all those aiming at the discovery of information regarding the future . It is moreover the science which has been most conscientiously modernised. It follows therefore that its full application to-day entails most complicated calculations . In the circumstances we have kept to broad principles, attempting rather to explain than to teach .

CHAPTER II PHYSIOGNOMONY I

Divisions and Short History who has cared to read the introduction to our book will have guessed for himself the division which is obvious in this chapter :1 . Physiognomony purely morphological . 2. Phrenology (Physiognomony applied to the skull) . 8 . Chirology (Physiognomony applied to the hand) . 4 . Typology (Planetary Physiognomony) . On account of its importance, however, we shall study separately Chirology, which again is divided into two sections, one morphological, the other astrological . It has also been seen that Physiognomony is the study of the whole of the outer being, and not only of his physiognomy, although the latter is after all the most important section of this art, which has been invented for the purpose of codifying the undoubted relations between the physical and the ethic . Long before the time of Lavater these relations were observed and practical or divinatory deductions were made from them . The Greeks had already so fully sensed them that in their language they combined into a single word-kalosagathos-(which means honest man, good man) the two words kalos (beautiful) and agathos (good) . With them beauty and goodness had to be combined in one single being before he was worthy to be called a human being . Amongst the Latins the word persona (from which comes the English word personality) meant at first the mask with which the actor played his part . Personality, therefore, is actually and figuratively the mask from which it is possible to diagnose both your tendencies and your future . And this mask of the ancient actor was rigid ; it represented his soul, his whole psychology . 1 Long before Lavater, therefore, before is thus made 1 This rigid mask was given up precisely because neither the soul nor the face . The rigidity ANYONE

of one piece and unalterable . Both become flexible at the dictates of the will of the ancient mask was the symbol of fate, the theoretic inflexibility of which we have also softened by the belief in a determinism mitigated by free will .

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Lombroso, Penschel, Pernetti, Harder, Kubisse or Delestre, the ancients claimed that a given face reflected a given character, corresponded with given faculties . And among the ancients, it is Aristotle, we think, who was the first to point out the connections (so clearly defined in the works of Lavater) which exist between some human faces and some animal heads, 1 it is the philosopher Zophirus, the physician Hippocrates . In the Middle Ages, and nearer our own times, it is Cureau de Lachambre, physician of Louis XIV, Porta and Adamantius, Pierre d'Albans and Cardon, Michael Scott and Claramontius, Montaigne, Bacon, etc . Montaigne wrote : 11 It seems that some faces are lucky, and others unlucky, and I think there is some way of distinguishing kindly faces from idiotic ones, stern ones from harsh, those malicious from the sorrowful, those disdainful from the melancholy, and other neighbouring qualities ." And long before him Marcus Aurelius wrote :-" A man full of frankness and integrity spreads around him an aroma which characterises him ; he is sensed, he is guessed ; his whole soul, his whole character show themselves in his face and in his eyes ." And before Marcus Aurelius, Solomon :-" As the water reflects the face of those who see themselves in it, so the heart of man is open to the eye of the wise man ." Delestre in his excellent Physiognomony (1866) gives the well known list of works written before Lavater on this subject and on the adjoining one of ehiromancy :-The Art of Chyromancy of Master Andrien Corum, small incunabulum without date, printed by Jehan de Verdellay ; the little treatise of Michael Scott, an occultist of the XIIIth century, the first edition of which, however, does not date farther back than 1508, the Latin essay on chiromancy of Andrea Corvo, the Enchiridion physiognomonice, dated Cracow 1532, the Chyromancy of Tricassius, entirely based on Astrology and translated into French, the Geomancy of Pierre d'Albano and that of Coele, the Physiognomony of Molinius, the book of Thaddeus Hagece (1565) where physiology first appears, the Treatise of the Examination of the Hand of Picciolus who himself quotes more than fifty of his predecessors, the remarkable De Humana Physiognomonia of J . B . Porta, the treatise of Metoscopy and Ophthalmoscopy of Fuchsius (1615), the works of Phinella, of May (medical chiromancy, 1665), of Ronphile, of Sicler, etc ., etc . If we have ventured to give such an extensive list, it is in order to show how much this science, like the others, fascinated the seekers, 1 As is well known, the painter Le Brun executed a series of quite remarkable drawings in which these relations are shewn in pairs-the head of an animal and side by side with it the human head showing the same characteristic, the lion and the man with leonine face, the dog and the man with canine face, etc.

PHYSIOGNOMONY 103 the pioneers who prepared the roads which were subsequently explored, with their methodical and critical genius, by Lavater and Gall, later by Desbarolles, later still by Gastin and Jagot . Let us also remember Saint-Simon, the keen observer, who writes in his Memoirs :-" It was only necessary to have eyes, without any knowledge of the Court, so as to distinguish the interests delineated in the faces ." Camper and Gall brought exactitude to the science of physiognomony, then still in its infancy and incongruous . But as we have said, to Lavater belongs the honour of having definitely established it . Swiss and the son of the doctor, Jean Gaspard Lavater very early showed himself to be thoughtful . Studying theology, he was appointed pastor in 1775 . His sermons were very well attended . He wrote no less than 129 books, the most famous of which was and remains his

Essay on Physiognomony .

II General It is common knowledge that, face to face with a fresh physiognomy, one experiences a feeling of attraction, of indifference or of hostility, actually based on the impression which it conveys of frankness, goodness, intelligence, or commonplace, of flatness, even stupidity, or of malignity, harshness, crookedness, brutality . But it is not the face alone which mutely speaks to us . It is also the attitude, the movement, the bearing, the way of walking, of dressing, of listening, or of speaking. This man is negligent, that other takes great care of his appearance ; this one ambles along, bent, piteous, and that other walks straight, proud, sure of himself. Here we have a serious type, with restrained gesture and slow speech . And this man is agitated, a " rigolo," a chatterer. No two are alike, and at once (and sometimes even too quickly) we judge them . How many have become friendly with a man solely because they liked his good manners, his correctness or his good nature ? How many, on the other hand, have wished never to see again a person who was introduced to them, simply because " his face did not appeal to them " ? On the basis of these data which, as will be seen, only consist of the examination (quick or careful) of the face, Lavater divided his science into four classes :1 . The temperamental physiognomony, which noticed the constitution of the individual, the quality of his blood and of his organs (delicate or coarse), his adaptability, his irritability .

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2 . The intellectual physiognomony-exterior, qualities of the mind showing themselves by the formation, the face, the complexion, the gestures. 3 . The moral physiognomony-inclinations towards good or evil. 4 . The medical physiognomony-visible signs of disease or health .

On the other hand he divided his observations into six categories according to whether they related to the face, the attitude, the voice, the texture of the tissues, the complexion, the hair . Since then all this has been simplified, and F . Clerget (who wisely asks us not to judge an individual from a few marks, but to study them all and to draw an average conclusion from them) only divides Physiognomony into three parts :1 . Relating to the intellectual life (examination of the frontal region) . 2 . Relating to the moral life (imparting mobility to the features of the face) . 3 . Relating to the material and organic life (attitude and gestures) . We shall presently combine the two methods . But first a few more remarks drawn from the book of Gaston Robert i on ugliness and beauty, the appearances of strength and weakness, the physiognomonic differences between the sexes, the family likenesses, the national physiognomonies, the physiognomy of ages and temperaments, profiles and silhouettes . As a matter of principle, says G. Robert, virtue makes beautiful, and vice makes ugly . But it is possible to find ugly people full of good qualities, and beautiful women who are very evil . However " look at the physiognomy when face to face with an evil act, and you will see to what extent it differs from the same types noticed in those who have never failed ." In the same way we detect in ugly people when lit by noble emotions, the kind of beauty which always accompanies virtue . According to Lavater, a very beautiful face-quasi-superhumanmust have :(a) A striking equality between the three parts : forehead, nose, chin. (b) The forehead ending straight, hence the eyebrows straight, close and bold . (c) The eyes blue or light brown, seeming from a distance black, and the upper lids covering the eyeball about a fifth or a fourth . (d) A nose with large bridge, almost straight, and slightly tilted . (e) A straight mouth with well marked curve, and equal lips . (f) A round and prominent chin . (g) Short dark brown hair, curled in big waves . 1

The Art of Knowing the Qualities and the Faults of People (published by Gamier, 1903) .

PHYSIOGNOMONY The last characteristic is doubtful . The union of the others is rare. It is found, for instance, in Napoleon I and in Madame Recamier .

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• Human strength, according to Lava ter, is in its outward appearance alive and calm . Some Herculeses, he says, are all bone and nerve, compact, close knit, endowed with the strength of a colossus . Other strong men seem elastic . If a man " built like a Hercules " has slack muscles, he is not really strong, and this is easily seen. The signs of a real calm and lasting strength NAPOLEON I are :-well made somewhat tall figure, thick neck, broad shoulders, a face with the bony structure visible (a man with a fat face is rarely strong), quiet bearing, firm step, medium voice . An alert strength is manifested only by accident ; it belongs to individuals who are thin rather than stout, of somewhat tall figure, short speech, piercing eyes, thin lips . The physiognomonic signs of weakness are very tall figure, thin build, a soft skin, the nose and forehead too rounded, chin and nostrils somewhat small, uncertain gait and gestures . Since the time of Lavater these matters of strength, and even athleticism, have been studied with particular care, for the reason that physical training and s p orts have become the subject of very deep research . It is in special books that exact and practical information will be found on these matters which are outside our scope . •

Differences appear •between man and woman f rom the point of view of physiognomy. In the woman everything is rounded . The tissues are delicate and extensile ; they soften the angles, and unite the various parts of the body by means of gentle transitions . The muscles are very mobile, do not contract for long ; consequently they do not modify the face sufficiently to give it the habitual expression which in a man allows the discovery of the ruling passions, the inclinations, the leanings of the mind and the heart . Hence also woman is not so good a subject for the science with which we are dealing as man . None the less it will be easy to detect at a glance a proud woman (erect carriage ; head raised, the mouth slightly disdainful, looking down from on high), a hypocrite (she, the same as the man, has a shifty eye, unless, being cynical, she is not afraid to look you in the eyes), the worthy poor woman with the suffering and resigned face, the professional beggar, with bent head, whining

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mien and excessive sighs, to distinguish a young woman of good behaviour from the gay woman with the instinctively provoking look, the timid girl from the conceited, the ignoramus from the educated woman, a common woman from a lady of good family, however simply dressed . One piece of advice :-Distrust the sharp nose, and especially the thin lips . It is common knowledge that a woman with thin lips has a bad disposition, is peevish, cruel, heartless .

IDEAL TYPES AOOORDING TO GREEK STATUARY .

Admire crimson and thick lips ; they usually belong to affectionate persons, and also to passionate lovers . As regards the family physiognomy G . Robert makes the following remarks :1 . From a stupid father and an intelligent mother very intelligent children are frequently born . 2. From a father by nature good, the children usually get a good disposition.

PHYSIOGNOMONY 107 3 . If the father is good, the sons seem to get from him their moral characteristics, from the mother those of the intellect . The daughters more usually inherit the soul of the mother . 4 . The newborn child must be studied, for it is during the first few hours that children most resemble their parents . This resemblance does not return till several years later . 5 . If the physical likeness of the children increases as they grow older, the same will happen in the case of the intellectual likeness . 6 . From the father come the strength or the weakness of the kind, not the shape of the bones or the muscles . From the mother come the quality of the nerves, the shape of the face if the maternity arises from first love (the widows for instance are an exception) . Naturalists have noticed that a bitch in her various litters always gave to her pups the characteristics of the race to which she owed her first gestation . 7 . If the child resembles both parents, it leans in the end towards the one who loves it more strongly and more intimately . 8 . Where a passionate character is introduced into a family by the father or the mother, it may take centuries before it is softened . 9 . The phlegmatic temperament is the one which is least easily passed on . 10. The active, hardworking, watchful temperament is almost ineradicable . The national physiognomy is a kind of extension of the family physiognomy which covers a race . The races of the world are distinguished by their features as much as by their colour . The Caucasian type is the only one which is essentially white and in which individual features are most varied ; Tartars resemble each other much, also Mongols, Chinese, Malays . If they are of the same age, it is difficult for a European to distinguish them . Variety is found again in the American race, but between tribe and tribe . We shall not go at length into the details of human types ; this would lead us too far and be of not much use. But we would like to say one word about the physiognomy of the

ages . " The child," says G . Robert, " has the face short, wide, squat,

the forehead prominent, the cheeks fat and smooth, the lips fresh and crimson, the skin soft, tender and pink, all the outlines rounded and graceful. " In the adolescent, the bones of the face are developed, the nose becomes sharper, the cheeks longer, down begins to show, the look becomes more assured, the colours diminish, the physiognomy acquires

108 THE OCCULT SCIENCES expression, the feelings sketch out their imprint on the face which later they will wrinkle . " The adult has features, more pronounced but less mobile. The physiognomy then gives hints as to nationality, family, character and temperament. "The physiognomy of the old man is dulled, his features are hardened, the skin dries and wrinkles, the eyes lose their light, the shape becomes angular, the face lacks mobility ." III Physiognomonic Tables.

Temperaments and Characteristics

The Choleric :-Eyebrows thick, tip of the nose angular, lips thin, eye characteristic, but alert, assured . Complexion often swarthy or yellowish (if the individual is bilious), the hair dark, harsh and well placed, good teeth . The Phlegmatic :-Outlines slack, dulled (those of the eyes arched), lower lip prominent, glance without life, complexion dull ; usually fair hair (often thin and flat), teeth irregular and slightly bluish . The Sanguine :-Face full, complexion florid, lips highly coloured, good teeth, hair thick, eyes often blue, merry, indicating thoughtlessness and love of pleasure. The Melancholy :-Nose inclined towards a mouth often closed, nostrils small, lips thin (the lower one prominent), chin small, forehead wrinkled, glance sad, cheeks hollow and complexion pale . The Choleric-Melancholy is inclined to friendship, the SanguinePhlegmatic to marriage. The man of good disposition is generally good looking, with large well proportioned nose, slightly inclined towards the mouth, the eyes somewhat deep set, forehead stern, chest broad . A man of evil disposition has an irregular pale face, with narrow ears, thin lips, slanting eyes, back somewhat arched, fingers long, legs thin and feet badly shaped . The witty type has a wide forehead, good ears, well arched brows, figure erect, fingers flexible, heels somewhat prominent, cheerful expression. The idiot has a neck too short, its back too rounded, jaws too large, eyes dull, foolish expression and ungainly movements . The brave man has keen eyes, well arched brows, pointed chin, muscular neck, body broad and well filled out . The coward has large eyes, small face, delicate limbs, weakly body, rounded forehead, a quick step and the face drawn out with fear .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 109 The pleasure lover has a smiling face, hair thin, chest and body hairy, brilliant and lascivious eyes . A few more remarks :Envy makes thin and languid . In inflammations of the chest the face grows pale, the look seems to stray. When gangrene sets in, the nose gets pinched, the lips turn blue, the complexion leaden . It is a bad omen in a patient when his eyes fix themselves on the light, get moist, squint, redden on the inside, when the arteries swell, blacken and draw back . The profile must not be neglected ; it is best studied by means of silhouettes thrown on to a screen . Lavater had given attention to them. A profile showing the forehead curved slightly inward indicates great capacity, but little creative power . The size of the upper lip denotes the extent of thoughtlessness . A high forehead is a sign of intellect. But a forehead forming an acute angle with the nose is a sign of the opposite . But we shall pass all these characters in review . Here we merely wanted to point out that the silhouette confirms the physiognomic signs of the face . ANIMAL COMPARISONS

This branch of Physiognomony which is one of the most remarkable, and perhaps one of the most true, is by no means new . As we said, Aristotle already claimed that animal physiognomies clearly defined in men might supply a sure indication as regards character, and we will now rapidly sketch out here, according to Decker, the correspondences which exist between the physiognomies of some men and the animals whose likeness their features suggest . The monkey--cautious, flatterer, tricky, timid, tendency to petty theft, to drunkenness and to lasciviousness . The fox-great cunning, considerable patience, marked circumspection, tendency to flattery and to egotism . The bear-misanthropy, rudeness, unsociability . The panther-irritability, knavery, lack of sensitiveness . The wolf-trickery without tenderness, dissimulation, quarrelsome and melancholy . The lion-greatness, generosity, firmness, nobility of character, calmness and, prudence . The parrot (hooked nose, receding chin)-superficial, unthinking, talkative, irritable and greedy .

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i

iu ./n 7 IV

Vl

THE RAVEN TYPE

I

THE SHEEP TYPE

Ow

PHYSIOGNOMONY 111 The owl-not much imagination, not much courage, not very docile, but orderliness and moderation . The raven-cleverness, impudence, rapacity. The eagle-high character, courage, resolution . The dog-courageous, faithful and devoted . The cat-egotistical, flatterer and insincere . The ferret-inquisitive, mischievous, restless, very wily . The sheep-simple disposition, good, gentle, but obstinate and imitative . 1 The pig-no tenderness or feeling, gluttonous and badly looked after . The horse-generous but proud nature . The donkey-lazy, self-sufficient and given to material pleasures . The ox-careless and apathetic, conscientious, imitatively laborious and useful . The camel-laborious and sober, but sarcastic and cold . THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BODY

Let us now pass on to the synoptic tables of physiognomony which will very clearly give us fairly exact information as to the tendencies of individuals as shown by each part of the body . 1.

FOREHEAD

According to Penschel, its length from one temple to the other should normally be nine inches . 2 The following is a list of the varieties of foreheads usually met with :Well proportioned as to length and Flattened, knotty, irregular-brutality, breadth-general abilities and qualities. criminality. Too large-laborious but solid memory . Dented-industry . Too small-predisposition to avarice . Arched-femininity. Too wide-tendency to anger . Straight-great intellect. Too long, very even-cruel, suspicious and vindictive character . Narrow, low, prominent-the forehead of the energetic and enterprising type . Round (convex)-gentleness . Retreating inward-egoism and weakness . Smooth and flat-middling imagination and intelligence .

Unwrinkled-cold, hypocrisy . Wrinkled horizontally-softness . Wrinkled vertically-energy . Set wrinkles-weak intellect . Deeply wrinkled above the eyes-slow mind. Crossed by a swollen vein-great abilities .

1 The ovine profile is often found among prostitutes (see remarks of Messrs . Poinsot and Normandy) . • A complete divinatory science has been founded on the lines of the forehead on account of the impressionability of the skin of this part . This was Metoscopy.

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Angular and broken-activity . Well arched-good nature, kindness . Slightly arched-simplicity, frankness. Thick and well drawn-sure judgment . Thin-moral weakness . Untidy-violence . With tuft between them-cunning . Supple, scarce, drooping-weak character .

Meeting (in men)-hard-heartedness, (in women) jealousy. Well divided-rather cold heart . Horizontal-manliness . Close to the eyes-gravity . Rising towards the forehead-cruelty . Raised from the eyes-timid inquisitiveness . Short and tufted-memory

3. EYES

Very light blue-weakness . Blue-gentleness, kindness. China-blue-passion, jealousy . Dark blue-profound thoughts . Brown-lively mind . Yellowish brown-talent, superiority . .Green-bravery, constancy . Green-yellow-treachery . Black-cunning, tenacity . Grey-gentle thoughtful mind . Very light grey-quickness of mind and gaiety. Pale-enigmatic mind . Always straight glance-despotism . Yellow-murderer's eyes . Penetrating glance-consciousness of one's own value .

Large, expressive-energy . Large, weak-phlegm . Small and alert-perseverance . Deep set-envy, malice . Very hollow-spying . Set at very sharp angle towards the nose-judicial wisdom . Upper eyelid arched--cheerful character. Heavy drooping eyelid-genius . Moist and veiled eyes-talent for art . Smiling eyes-amorous and kind . Drooping eyes-lack of intelligence. Rounded eyes-unbalanced . Open and prominent-obstinacy . Always moving-inconstancy . Projecting-laziness and wantonness.

4. NOSE

A perfect nose-it must have the same length as the forehead and show near the root a very slight dent-is always a sign of great moral qualities . Inclined towards the mouth-high sentiWell-shaped nose-lofty mind . ments . Large-goodness of heart . Perpendicular-not very strong charSmall-fine feeling. acter . Long and rounded-disloyalty . With narrow base-trickery and distrust. Thick and small-bad character . Broad-great ability . Small and thin-alert intellect. Retrousse-mischievousness, thoughtThick and rounded-good nature . lessness . Square end (flattened)-original ideas . Pinched-very great strictness . Hooked-greed . Very fleshy-greediness . Pointed-mean character. Wide nostrils-expansiveness . Arched at the top-overbearing.

PHYSIOGNOT 0NY Fleshy-sensuality. Thin and narrow-austere habits . Too plump-candour . Hollow-sorrow, melancholy . Very smooth-lack of brain .

5.

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CHEEKS Slightly wavy-experience . Furrowed-simplicity . Rising towards the eyes-generous heart . Triangular dimples-indicate envy and jealousy.

6. MOUTH, LIPS AND TEETH' Upper lip projecting over the lower-sign Mouth well closed-resolution, firmness . Mouth halfopen-weakness, irresolution . of kindness, but of mediocre mind. Both lips projecting equally-uprightness Mouth open-weak mentality. In a straight line-logical mind . and sincerity. Lower lip projecting over the upper- Too wide-lack of restraint . disdainful and dissatisfied character . Too small-archness and frivolity . Tight-affectation and vanity . Fleshy lips-sensuality . Drooping corners-habitual sadness. Thick-voluptuousness, not over-nice . Very thick-nastiness in tastes . Brilliant teeth-refined tastes . Yellowish-accustomed to work . Firm-energy. Small and short-keen mind . Crooked-timidity . Well cared for-love of order. Sharp-ill-nature . Strong, pointed-long life . Thin-hardness of heart . Broad and thick-liking for good food. Slack-weakness . Prominent-calm temperament . Mobile-inconstancy . Tight (edges not showing)-order and Badly cared for-careless character, or mystical disdain of the body. coolness . 7. CHIN Straight to the lower lip-frankness, Prominent-firmness . loyalty. Dimpled-discretion. Short and narrow-timidity . Fleshy (double)-sensuality . Short and round-constancy. Curved-meticulous mind . Roughly angular-avarice . Receding-weakness . Square and projecting-ambition . Cleft-composure . Continuing straight from the cheeksRound-great kindness. audacity . Round and dimpled-amiability . Non-existent-degeneracy . Very square-harshness . Pointed-bad temper . 1 The Mouth has been considered so important in Physioguomony that whole volumes of

observations have been devoted to it, such as Buccomania (1851) by William Rogers, in which„ in addition to the information given above, the following is found :Any mouth twice as wide as the eye indicates stupidity . Do not be afraid of anything from a person who in all the movements of the soul maintains a graceful mouth . The more the mouth is closed and the chin broad, the more rigid and obstinate the character . The slack . ness or firmness of the lips corresponds to that of the character, etc . According to Rogers the mouth is sufficient to denote the character . And did not Herder write this gracious line :The mouth is the cup of love and the chalice of truth .

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8. THROAT Round and well-formed neck-gentleness . Long and flexible-supple nature . Stiff and thin-intolerance . Thick and large-strength, power . Thick and awkward-temper . Long and slender-phlegm . Bent forward-beggar or inquisitive . Bent to the right-studious . Bent to the left-dissipation .

AND NECK Very fat-sensuality . Short and wide-brutality . Bent inward-cowardice . Back of the neck swollen and baresensual appetites . Overlapping-brutishness . Very thin and very high-egoism, strong will. Slightly hollow-vanity .

9. EAR Small-refined tastes . Well-shaped, good rim and somewhat Large and flat-mediocre intellect . large-great commonsense and wellWithout rim-total lack of intelligence. developed intellect . Badly-shaped and pale-cretinism . Well drawn and rimmed, pink colourThick and swollen-slow mind . tendency to eloquence . Thick at the tip only-unrefined greedi- Large and smooth, very open-musical ness . abilities . Massive and rounded-vulgarity . Set close to the head-obstinacy. Narrow and rounded-high ability. Detached-cunning and ability . Placed very high-cynicism . Set somewhat low, sinuous outline-good Pointed (top and bottom)-caustic spirit . nature . 10. HEAD 1 MEN Square type-energy, thoughtfulness . Longish triangular-spontaneity, strong Longish square-duplicity . will. Longish round-prudent ambition . Short conoid-ingratitude, egotism . Longish oval-nobility of feeling . WOMEN

Square type-energy, orderliness, morality. Longish square-hardness . Longish round-alert and independent mind.

'

Open oval-ambition . Longish oval-imagination, faithfulness. Short oval-curiosity, devotion.

11. SKULL (See farther on : Phrenology) . As regards the head, see farther on our typological table .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 12 .

HAIR AND BEARD

Long thin hair-effeminate man . Flat hair-mind without consistence . Short and stro - ig-energy, strong will . Black, thick, greasy-love of orderliness . Black and very thin-sensitive nature . Hard-self-willed . Hard and crinkly-obstinacy . Very frizzy-imitative mind . Silky and very fine-versatile mind . Thin and sparse-practical mind. 13 .

115

Caroty-red-entirely good or entirely bad . Very fair-dreamy character . Fair-gentleness . Golden-nobility, open mind . Dark chestnut-accommodating nature . With light meshes-doubtful faithfulness . Black-resolution, violence . Very black-jealousy . Ash blond (in women)-leaning towards the arts .

BODY, HEIGHT AND PROPORTIONS

A harmonious and well proportioned figure indicates a good physical and moral health. In addition we give below some details :Unequal shoulders-delicacy of mind . Broad stomach-swagger. Massive shoulders -strength without Narrow stomach-business ability, ausdistinction . terity . Broad shoulders-power . Big stomach-sensuality. Pointed shoulders-difficult character. Thin stomach-love and melancholy. Muscular and hard arms-hard work . Hairy stomach-passion for adventure . Fleshy and soft arms-phlegm . Legs nervy and thin-weakness, timidity . Hairy arms-dissoluteness and curiosity . Legs nervy and muscular-audacity and Arms very hairy-brazenness . firmness . Arms without hair-mean revenges . Legs short and fat-bad temper and cruelty. Short arms-dissoluteness . Long arms-bravery and generosity . Legs long-magnanimity . Curved arms-love of money . Legs swollen and soft-impotence . Broad chest -sign of strength . Legs twisted or hollow-thieves and evil Narrow chest-weakness . doers (excepting congenital malformaSmooth chest-prudence and wisdom . tions) . Hairy chest-voluptuous nature . Feet big-solidity. Very broad chest-daring. Feet with thick ankles-plebeian origin . Hollow chest-degeneracy . Small feet-breeding . Fat chest-laziness . Feet without hair-weakness . Red chest-inconstancy and pride . Feet normally hairy-perfect balance . Broad back-conciliating mind . Feet with harsh hair-debauchery . Medium back-good balance . Flat feet-despicable individual . Narrow back-small minded, quibbling. Hard feet-close intellect . Humped (or bent) back-intelligence and Soft feet-lightness . jealousy . Long feet (in women)-easy conception. 1 ' The " Grand Albert " claims that in order to know the measure of the secret charm of s, woman, it is necessary to take half the length of her left foot . Other authors say that such length is in harmony with the size of the mouth .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES 14.

SKIN AND WRINKLES

White and soft skin-phlegm . Delicate, fine and smooth skin-weakness. Olive skin-melancholy . Brown or reddish skin-bad temper . Pale skin-self-sufficiency . Somewhat bright complexion - great openness . Pronounced complexion-bad tempered. Mat complexion-great sensitiveness . Yellowish complexion-very nervous . Sudden flushings-timidity . Wrinkles on the forehead-thoughtful mind. Premature wrinkles - impulsiveness, cares.

Straight wrinkles-upright judgment . Wrinkles numbering seven-constancy and seriousness . Twisted wrinkles-duplicity, falseness . Wrinkles turning towards the left -hypocrisy . Broken wrinkles-versatility . Vertical wrinkles-discreet firmness . Wrinkles in corner of eyes (crow's feet)business men, preoccupied . No wrinkles at all-flawless character . Finally, the wrinkles on each side of the nose show a thoughtful mind, with mathematical leanings .

15.

VOICE, LAUGH AND SIGHS Trenchan voice-violent temperament . Noisy laugh-superficial gaiety . Honeyed voice-intriguing temperament. Open laugh-frankness. Sonorous voice-cheerful temperament . Laugh through clenched teeth-dissimulaHollow voice-melancholy temperament . tion . Tired voice-saddened temperament . Laugh which causes triangular hollows Unctuous voice-pious temperament . in the cheeks-jealousy .-

High pitched voice-slanderous temperament . Persuasive voice-noble temperament . Harmonious voice-charmer's voice . Hoarse voice-choleric temperament . Trembling voice-impressionable temperament . Nasal voice-mediocre temperament . Metallic voice-clear and precise mind . Thin laugh-hardness of heart . 16.

Laugh with round dimple in the cheeksgenerous sensitiveness . Laugh showing the upper gums-indiscretion . Smile without reason-trickery . Gracious smile-kindness . Disdainful smile-self-sufficiency . Involuntary cries-weak will . Repressed complaints-strong will . Marked sobs-weakness .

WALK Lively-blundering activity. Striking on tke heel-vanity, ostentaCareless-laziness . tion. Agitated-unequal temper . Putting the foot well down-frankness and loyalty . Uniform and moderate-wisdom and thoughtfulness . Straight ahead-decided will . Counting steps-meticulousness, hesita- Slanting-falseness, cunning. tion. With the feet turned inward-general On the toes-timidity, indecision . weakness .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 17.

Angular-trenchant mind. Rounded off-conciliating mind . Numerous-nervousness, affectation .

117

MOVEMENTS

Upward-silly pride .

Downward-modesty . Uncertain-timidity .

Few-wisdom, coolness . Looking down from above-disdainful condescension.

Studied-dangerous self-mastery . Body forward-carelessness - brazenness. Looking over the shoulder-conceit . Stamping of the feet-impatience . Frequent shrugging of the shoulders-self- Imposing attitude - swagger, playsufficiency . acting . Some authors draw moral deductions from warts and spots on the face. We have not thought it necessary to follow them as far as this . IV Love and Physiognomony By applying the principles of morphological Physiognomony to the period of love, L . Mario, in a quite well constructed book' gives the following advice, by which those in love may profit :A young wrinkled forehead denotes a thoughtful mind, somewhat melancholy. However, an excess of wrinkles indicates a lack of coolness, of restraint in impressions . Generally wrinkles going upward mean a cheerful character . If in the young face of a woman laughter brings a mass of lines at the corners of the eyes, this is a good sign of moderation . A vertical line appearing on the forehead at times indicates habits of diligence and prudence . Wrinkles round the mouth denote a tendency to pouting, even to temper. So beware, gentlemen. And you also, young ladies, ladies who are going to choose husband or lover, for these wrinkles, caused by a bitter character, forebode rain or tempests in the sky of your loves . L . Mario, In Love-What may be read on the Phy8iognomony (published by Nilsson).

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Premature wrinkles round the nose spell mockery in girls, meanness in boys . The complexion is influenced by the action of the blood, and consequently accords with certain states of the soul . Mistrust him who, when angry, turns pale . He is deceitful, perhaps vindictive. A girl who frequently changes colour thus shows her sensitiveness and her openness . If she blushes at the sight of a young man who comes near her, this means avowal or shyness . A bright colour belongs to the frank type, a too bright one to the impatient . A yellowish complexion belongs to the envious man (save in the case of illness) . A pimpled complexion is not normal in young people . The type representing the best combination of qualities is :In women :-Nose regular (delicate feeling), somewhat strong (thought), mouth firm with fleshy lips (kindness, normal sensuality), chin well marked (gentle will), eyes well opened (care), eyebrows well arched (frankness), ear proportioned, hips broad, neck round, somewhat fat at the back (see the face p . 117) . In men :-Nose somewhat strongly divided from the forehead by a imperceptible dent (nobility), facial angle open (intelligence), forehead broad and high but without excess, mouth well marked, hair flat without being hard . If the hair is chestnut and the eyes at the same time are grey, the likelihood is stronger that you are face to face with a good and worthy lad . On the other hand, lovers all, distrust him (or her) who does not look straight at you, who speaks of love with eyebrows like this, /\ whose nose is thinner at the root, with the white of the eye slightly yellowish, soft cheeks, feet tending to turn inward, bent back, the left hand a little larger than the right (sign of jealousy), a tight mouth, canine teeth prominent . Another book, very important on a likewise important though delicate subject, is that of Dr. B. Zenope, of the Pasteur Institute, which ought to be in all hands, and deals with the morphological characteristics of sexuality . 1 After having shown that the sexual act is indispensable to health, and having therefore in the name of nature and of morality condemned the ecclesiastical celibacy, which by the way does not in any way compel to absolute abstinence (which could only be obtained by a castration), Dr. Zenope insists on the danger of marriages which are physically badly matched from the sexual point of view . It is in fact, he says, a mistake often terrible in its results, for a genetically weak , How to Choose one's Wife or one's Husband (published by the Grande Librairie Mondiale

at Constantinople) .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 119 man (which generally is in no way his fault) to marry a woman too ardent for him, and just as much for a ` strong' man to unite himself with a woman insufficiently ovarian ; for a delicate and not very sensual girl to take a hyperorchidian husband, or for a strong wench to give her hand to him who will be unable to satisfy her . All these cases result in diseases, infidelities-marital hell . It is therefore worth while going into the question, and if this is not a matter of occultism, it is physiognomonism of the greatest interest . We therefore thought we ought to give a moment to it and reproduce our author's table of outer signs of sexualities . Various signs of female sexuality :short figure (less than 5 feet), stout or thin, indicates ovarian and thyroid insufficiency, and consequently choleric, changeable, calculating character : sexual temperament averse from enjoyment, threat of obesity, gout, diabetes . A tall figure, stout or thin, indicates ovarian insufficiency only . The character may be not detestable, but the temperament remains cold. Cheeks.-Big and red :-hyperthyroid, hence bad character and sensually cold . Thin (without being hollow) and pale in a woman of medium height -normal ovaries, hence loving character and good sexual temperament . Parents who are thin, without diabetes, albuminuria or arteriosclerosis, generally have daughters of the same kind . Hair.-On the face (lips), fore-arm, thigh :-certain ovarian insufficiency, hence risk in everything and promise of diseases . Throat .-When the lower part of Adam's apple is swollen and hard and the thyroid is large :-sadness, bad temper, coldness . Breasts .-Thickness of the tips of the breasts is a good sign of an ardent temperament . Small effaced nipples are a sign of impotence . Body.-A thick body (not to be confounded with a body accidentally swollen) is a sign of ovarian or thyroid insufficiency . Bad character if the figure is short, indifferent if it is tall . Arthritic temperament . General obesity is likewise a bad sign . Eyebrows .-Marked vertical lines :-insufficiency, bad temper . Rules.-This is one of the safest signs if it is possible to know them . Abundant regular rules (every 28 days) and lasting 5 days :Excellent normal ovaries . Insufficient, irregular, painful, short rules :-abnormal ovaries . Let us not forget, without going into detail, that the glands are of immense importance . The thyroid gland, below Adam's apple, is called that of " bad temper " u because its irregular secretion causes this .

Figure.-A

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The ovarian gland is dual and forms the ovaries of women . As to the word orchidy, the reader will guess its meaning, as also the reason why a woman is chosen according to whether her hips are broad or narrow . Signs of male sexuality :Figure.-Tall ( thin or stout) indicates moderate power ; if short, hyperorchidy (unless the head is small, the shoulders and hips narrow, in which case orchidian insufficiency) . Hair.-If by the age of twenty a boy has neither beard nor moustache -insufficiency . Cheeks.-Roughly the same signs as in women . Voice.-Harsh-hyperorchidy . Thin, childish-insufficiency . Body.-As soon as it begins to get stout, powers begin to decrease . Hair.-It generally begins to turn white at the same time as the secretion begins to decrease . Obesity and mark between the eyebrows .-Same as in women. 120

These observations are so true (but we have condensed them, and those interested must not rest satisfied with them) that Mr . Zenope by means of them explains certain racial characteristics . " How can we be surprised," he says, " that Frenchmen should have the reputation of being amorous, somewhat frivolous, in any case loving woman much ? Most of them are of medium height, dark, pale, hence normal orchidians and often even hyperorchidians . " Englishmen on the other hand have all the symptoms of genital insufficiency-tall figure, thinness, red cheeks, etc . This does not mean that they are incapable of having children. But they are for this reason of a cold temperament, not very sexual. " The Orientals are often hyperorchidians, lascivious, vicious and poetical ; their women, suffering from thyroid insufficiency, are lazy and not very intelligent." And for ourselves we ask in conclusion :-When will the ante-marital medical certificate become of general use ? Why do not two families who wish to unite their children, each ask the advice of the doctor of the other family, who would say :- (1) if the young man (or the young woman) is healthy, and above all not syphilitic, and (2) what kind of sexuality he (or she) has, so as to know whether their temperaments are matched in this respect . To unite in marriage two equal fortunes or social positions is a good thing . To unite in marriage two corporal and mental harmonies is perhaps better still.

PHYSIOGNOMONY

121

V Elements of Phrenology Intellectual brother of Lavater and his passionate admirer, Gall is the inventor of Phrenology . Francis Joseph Gall, born in 1758 in the Grand Duchy of Baden, devoted himself early to the study of the brain and to the researches which were to lead to his system . It is said that having noticed at school the successes of those of his fellow pupils who were endowed with large and prominent eyes, and who all had a good memory, he concluded that if memory seems to have such an outer sign, the same must of necessity be the case with the remaining faculties . It was in 1796 that he opened in Vienna his famous lectures on the anatomy of the brain and on the data of phrenology. At the start his work was made easier by his obtaining for his researches the entry into prisons and hospitals, heads of persons condemned to death, etc . He himself moulded a quantity of skulls of persons of all kinds . But the Church interfered, claiming that his teaching led to fatalism and to materialism, although the master denied this. Meanwhile his reputation spread . He went to Paris in 1807, became a naturalised Frenchman, gave lectures which were very well attended and wrote a book of the greatest importance . 1 But like so many innovators, he antagonised " officialdom." The doors of the Academy of Sciences were closed against him, and this upset him much . Mocked, neglected, he sank into poverty, and in 1828 he took refuge in Montrouge, where he died at the age of sixty, broken by fatigue and sorrow, leaving a widow in distress, and bequeathing to the School of Medicine in Paris his own skull and his collections . His pupil Spurzheim successfully continued the work of the master in England and in America, where he died in 1832 . Then the doctrine was taken up, augmented, arranged by Broussais, Fossati, Bouillaud, Combes, Vimont, Poupin, Saler-but attacked by Sarlandic re, Cerise, Lelut, Flourens. We propose to explain it briefly, drawing attention to the fact at least that Gall has placed the exclusive metaphysicians under the necessity of reckoning with the rationalism of physiology, and this is a not inconsiderable result . As to the astral sign-manual, this need not be taken into account for the purpose of practising good phrenology . However, for those who are willing to admit it-and we have given proofs of its truth and of its interest-it will but corroborate the data of Physiognomony in general, phrenology included . The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System and of the Brain in particular

(4 volumes with 100 engraved plates) .

122

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The skull being moulded on the brain, its surface reproduces the shape thereof. 1 And as the brain is the seat of our faculties, if it is seen that persons having a given talent, vice, or virtue, all seem to have the same part of the skull particularly developed, there would appear to be authority for the belief that the subjacent part of the brain is the seat of that talent, that vice, or that virtue . Phrenology or Craniology is therefore the study of the psychology of the individual based on the peculiarities of his skull . Undoubtedly the circumvolutions of the brain must be taken into account, and on the other hand the peculiarities of the skull are not direct signs of the dispositions of the substance of the brain, but they reveal them " like the protuberances of a bag the contents of which we try to guess by feeling it with the hand ." (G. Robert) . Without going into the details of the anatomy of the brain, let us remember that its organs correspond to three classes of faculties-the instincts, thefeelings, and the abilities (perceptive or reflective) . According to the phrenologists, the instincts occupy, apart from the forehead, the whole of the surface which remains uncovered when we put our hat on ; the feelings occupy the space covered by the hat, and the abilities the remainder . The instincts or tendencies in Phrenology number ten :-amativeness, philogeniture, habitativeness (or concentrativeness), affection, combativeness, destructiveness, alimentiveness, secretiveness, acquisitiveness, constructiveness. The feeling or moral faculties number twelve :-self-esteem, approbativeness, circumspection, benevolence, veneration, firmness, conscientiousness, hope, admiration, idealism, cheerfulness, imitativeness . The abilities or perceptions fall into two classes :(a) perceptive faculties :-individuality, configuration, extent, weight (resistance), colour, locality, arithmetic, orderliness, eventuality, time, tone, language ; (b) reflective faculties :-comparison, causality . All this is somewhat complicated, and some of the names are plainly barbarous. Let us try to simplify and to speak a language which is less difficult for the layman . Let us first study the instincts and their phrenological places . 2 ' See, however, the reservations stated at the end of this sub-chapter .

x All the following is the summing up of the book of G. Robert, The Art of Knowing the Qualities and the Defects of People (published by Garner in 1903) which all those who want more

details on these interesting questions ought to get . But the treatise of Delestre may also be consulted .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 14

zz

/v

1 . Amativeness . 2 . Philogeniture . 3 . Habitativeness . 4 . Affection. 5 . Combativeness . 6 . Destructiveness . 7 . Alimentiveness . 8 . Secretiveness . 9 . Acquisitiveness . 10 . Constructiveness . 11 . Self-estee m . 1 2 . Approbativeness . 13 . Circumspection. 14 . Benevolence . 15 . Veneration .

16 . Perseveranc e . 17 . Conscientiousness . 18 . Hope .

1 9 . Admiration . 20 . Idealism . 21 . Cheerfulness . 22 . Imitativeness . 23 . Individuality. 24 . Configuration . 25 . Extent. 26 . Resistance . 27 . Locality . 28 . Arithmetic . 29 . Orderliness . 30 . Comparison . 31 . Colour . 32 . Time. 33 . Language . 34 . Causality. 35 . Eventuality .

123

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Amativeness .-This is the sense of love . Its organ is the little brain (at the back of the brain) which is generally more developed in man . If lie is sanguine and vigorous, he leans towards ardent love when sustained by the instinct of affection, and towards jealousy when sustained by the instinct of secretiveness . On the other hand the weak man, if his instincts of courage and destruction are not strong, will incline towards solitude . When the organ is atrophied, it means indifference to voluptuousness, excessive shyness, and in women leaning to celibacy, even the cloister . Philogeniture.-Paternal or maternal instinct, the seat of which is the middle part of the little brain . This organ is more marked in women. Combined with the instincts of acquisitiveness and habitativeness, it makes good parents. In parricides and infanticides it has been noticed that this organ is missing. A mad woman in the Salpetriere, in whom it was highly developed, used to nurse blocks of wood in her arms . Habitativeness .-The love of the home . This tendency illumines with its circumference the apophysis of the occiput . Affection .-Its seat is outside and above that of philogeniture . It is the social instinct . It must not be confounded with benevolence . By itself it is commonplace and fails to select . Combined with the instinct of love it leads to fatiguing attentions . Combativeness.-Above the preceding. Quarrelsome people, says Gall, have that part of the head at the back and level with the ears, broader and more developed than cowards . If well supported by other good instincts, it makes brave, but if badly supported, foolhardy . It is highly developed in the cock and the lion . It is weak in women and children . Turenne had it very strongly marked . It is absent in timid persons frightened by life (these are sometimes inclined to commit suicide) and who, putting up with every injustice, lead a painful existence . Destructiveness .-This organ makes a ridge somewhat behind the ear. A tendency dangerous to social life . Edgar Allan Poe called it the instinct of perversity. It is marked in him who beats animals, ill-treats children and women, and also in carnivorous animals . Tendency to evil, even to murder . Alimentiveness.--This is appetite . Its seat between destructiveness and constructiveness . Well developed it indicates leaning towards greediness and drunkenness. Secretiveness .-A little above the top of the ear . Much developed it means trickery, lying, dissimulation (for instance in the fox and the raven) .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 125 Supported by passions and necessity it leads to theft, to indelicate actions. Acquisitiveness .-Its seat, bulging and longish, is above and a little in front of the preceding . It is the sense of economy and of good management . Exaggerated it leads to avarice . United to combativeness, hope and idealism, indicates a brave and adventurous character. If lacking-prodigality, lack of orderliness . Constructiveness .-Seated in that part of the forehead situate immediately above the temples . Combined with idealism and admiration, it makes ingenious and inventive writers . Together with configuration, extent and weight-architects, engineers . Together with language, comparison, causality-advocates and pedants. Together with orderliness and arithmetic-inventors and mechanics . It is a tendency which is of value only through its alliances . This bump gives skill to the good workman, genius to the great leader, diplomatic skill to the negotiator. •

• ination of• the moral and affective faculties . Let us pass on to the exam Self-esteem.-Is situate at the intersection of the circumference of the skull and an imaginary straight line starting at the extreme tip of the chin and passing through the greater part of the exterior ear. If excessive-pride and disdain of others. Normal-excellent moral restraint, leading to good feelings . Very marked in the peacock, the turkey, the cock, the pheasant, which have lost this restraint and make themselves unbearable by their vanity. Approbativeness .-Principle of emulation. To it we owe devotion, the desire to please, the need of . esteem . Its phrenological place is vertically and laterally above the preceding . Combined with self-esteem it produces a very fine character . Alone and without useful complements-debasing concessions and compliances, vanity, thirst for praise . Worldings often have this organ to excess . Dogs are well provided with it . Circumspection.-In the middle of the imaginary line which ends in self-esteem. Well developed-thoughtfulness, foresight-as in oxen and other herbivorous animals . Benevolence .-In the middle of the upper forehead.

126

THE OCCULT SCIENCES One of the best faculties . It complements affection . Makes us gentle and charitable . Very noticeable in elephants and dogs . Veneration .At the top of the head equally distant from the apophysis of the occiput and the middle of the eyebrows above the nose . Very pronounced in savages . This faculty inclines to credulity, religiosity, servile respect for the uniform. If not too marked-deference to old people and women, genius, work, the law . Combined with affection-domesticity . Firmness, perseverance.-At the rear of the preceding organ, on the middle line separating the two halves of the brain . Element of strong will. Fine attribute . The soul of great work . Its overdevelopment leads to obstinacy which is the vice of strong will. Conscientiousness.-At the rear and side extremity of each medial lobe. It produces justice, duty, love of truth . Makes magistrates incorruptible and legislators enlightened . Indispensable in him who governs or commands . If it is lacking, there is risk of want of proportion in all things . Hope .-Below veneration, it illumines the centre of the medial lobe (a little higher up) . Auxiliary to strong will, but veils perils and may lead to carelessness . If absent-continual disappointments . United with constructiveness-makes vast undertakings and great inventions possible . Admiration.-In the middle of the intersection of the anterior and medial lobes . Love of the great, the unknown, the extraordinary . Leads to exaggerations . If absent in anyone who is upright-clear sight and wisdom . Idealism .-Subjacent to the preceding . Causes love of the beautiful, a brilliant imagination, the sense of progress . But may lead to extravagance, a taste for tinsel and the fantastic . Cheerfulness .-A little above the arch of the eyebrows . Gives a love of quips, aptitude to mockery . This bump is highly developed in Henri IV, Gresset, the comic authors . Imitativeness .-That portion of the skull which skirts on each side the point of the hair . Its point ends on the open middle of the forehead . Very common in parrots, monkeys, blackbirds and many animals .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 127 The cause of numerous actions copying others and without much thought . Impedes the personality . But enables artists to discover the movements of truth . This organ was highly developed in the skull of the noted actor Debureau .

• At last we come to• the •intellec tual faculties . Individuality .-At the juncture of the eyebrows, immediately above the base of the nose . Not to be mixed with temperament . This concerns the memory of physiognomies, the power to distinguish between likenesses, to study objects individually . Configuration.-Adjoins the preceding laterally, following the outline of the eyebrows . It is the sense of proportion following on the perfection of touch and sight. Extent .-Follows the preceding . Correct estimate of distances, approximate estimate of heights and depths . Weight (or Resistance).-At the top of the eyebrow ridge . This organ gives a clear idea of the weight and resistance of objects. Tendency to dynamics . Colouring (or Chromatic) .-Seated on the arch of the eyebrows . Perceives the colours and their harmonies . Highly developed in Raphael and Rubens. Is sometimes lacking (Daltonism) . Locality .-To the right and left of the upper edge of individuality . Sense enables places seen to be distinctly remembered . Very developed in dogs and pigeons . Arithmetic .-The bump of arithmetic is at the outer angle of the eye. Sometimes, when highly developed, it causes the outer part of the upper lid to project ! Education increases it, but an ignorant person may have it . It is a spontaneous gift . Newton, Descartes, the famous mathematicians and arithmeticians, had this bump very prominently . Orderliness .-Projection on the ridge of the eyebrows, at the start of the downward line . Important-taste for logic, clearness, method, classification . Eventuality (memory of things, educability) .-Astride on the medial line of the forehead . Combined with idealism-fertile imagination . Missing-lack of remembrance, therefore of experience . Time .-On the inside of the arch of the eyebrows . Ability to estimate the lapse of time, to remember dates . The principle of rhythm .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Tone.At the extreme end of the eyebrow ridge .

Sense of method and of harmony . Languages .-Behind the eyeball which it pushes out or allows to sink according to its excess or its insufficiency. Comparison .-In the centre of the forehead . Missing in most animals . Gives the power of comparing, of symbols . Valuable in philosophy. Causality .-At the top of the forehead . Broussais had this bump enormously developed, also Curie . It is the essential gift of scientists and scholars . Gall summed up the preceding data under three heads, and divided the phrenological characteristics of the head into three classes 1 . Intellectual characteristics indicated by a predominant forehead. 2 . Moral characteristics indicated by a considerable distance between the top and the centre of the skull . 3 . Instinctive characteristics, when the lateral and rear parts are the more important . However, his doctrine was chiefly based on the relations between the faculties, allowing the possibility of development of the original powers-a mediocre intellect, for instance, improving thanks to strong instinctive passions, or a formation of the brain being modified by education, surroundings, events . In short, Phrenology gives hints as to the mental constitution . It must not be asked to do more . The collection of skulls bequeathed by Gall bears out his theories to a considerable extent . Specially to be noted are :Skull No . 168, of a professor of libidinous temperament-notable development of the organ of physical love . Skull No . 32, that of the murderer Papavoine-very prominent organ of the tendency to murder . Skull No . 236, that of the executed Voirin-same remark . Plaster cast of Henri IV . His cheerfulness, his benevolence, his acquisitiveness are marked . The mask of Cartouche-penetration, love of disguise, memory, trickery and theft. Mask No . 231-the Italian sculptor Ceracchi, conspirator and patriot, who tried to assassinate Napoleon when he was First Consul-organs of pride, destructiveness and mechanics very marked . Skull No . 161 is that of a leader of brigands with organs of ambition and leadership developed . No. 157, bust of Abbe Gauthier, professor and philanthropist . His most noted organs are goodness, love of children, educability .

129 PHYSIOGNOMONY The bust of Buffon shows poetic sense, educability, configuration, locality, colouring . Busts of Leibnitz, Pica della Mirandola-types of fine cerebral development . Plaster copy of bust of Raphael-very marked sense of colour . Head of Gluck (10), bust of Gretry (108), mask of Liszt (66), indications of sound, veneration . Goethe (5), poetry. Memory for words. Comparison . Bacon (89), Voltaire (60)-comparative sagacity . Wit . Skull 188-Eva Castel, celebrated cartomancer-taste for admiration . Mask of Walter Scott, Tasso, the mystic Dehayes-same note . Heads of Richelieu, Charles XII, Napoleon, Lamennais-types of firmness of character . A visit to the Gall Museum, as also to the Dumontier and Vimont Museums, is therefore very instructive . The Vimont Museum in particular has one of the most remarkable and most complete collections of skulls of animals . Apart from these museums, famous skulls have been preserved and thoroughly studied . Let us remember for instance that the "bump of criminality " is most marked not only in common murderers, but also in Catherine de Medici who flogged her servants, and in the Comte de Charolais (18th century) who tortured women who were decoyed to his house by accomplices. We cannot close these pages without relating some typical anecdotes about Gall and his system . One day (at the height of his fame) he invited to breakfast some sixty cabdrivers, and asked them before the meal if he might examine their skulls . He thereupon examined them one by one from the point of view of quarrelsomeness, and divided them into groups, from the quietest to the most irascible. After this he gave them plenty to eat and drink. At dessert his forebodings did not fail to materialise . Some of those in whom the bump of love of squabbling was pronounced began to chaff or insult the others, whereupon those who had similar phrenological signs retorted. Hence violent quarrels and great fighting, whilst the men in whom the same bump was only slightly marked remained calm and patient. At a German University, a student asked Gall to examine him, which the Master did, telling him afterwards that he had found the bump of self-defence fairly strongly marked (polite expression so as not to tell him that he too was quarrelsome) . The young man

130 THE OCCULT SCIENCES protested that he was most quiet, and the professor was astounded that he should be mistaken on this point, but some time afterwards he met his " pacifist " being taken away by the police . He learnt that the student had gone into an inn, had quarrelled with the firstcomer and taking up a chair had hit out right and left among the visitors ! Attempts were naturally made to test the knowledge of Gall. As he was passing through Italy, some people brought him a skull in plaster and asked him what he thought of it . " It is that of a great artist," said Gall after having felt it . It was in fact a moulding taken from the authentic skull of Raphael . By practice Gall arrived at such a certainty of diagnosis, that sometimes it was enough for him to look at people in order to guess their tendencies, and this always excited the admiration and also the dread of those with whom he mixed . One evening there was in a drawing room a large gathering of men and women of the world, philosophers and scientists . Gall's claims were discussed before him, some thinking them exaggerated, and the greatest talkers, who were antagonistic to the phrenologist, were on the point of carrying the day, when a caller was announced who was a total stranger to him . Gall immediately asked for permission to look at the newcomer for a moment, and turning to him whilst scrutinising him with his sharp eye he said " This gentleman will help me to convert you. I do not know him, and he has never met me . But I am inclined to think that he is a collector." The stranger, much surprised, assented . " But what would you think if I told you that lie collects, not insects or plants or medals, but pictures ? " The guest, by now utterly astounded, said that it was correct, and the incredulity of all was turned to admiration . In 1823, at a time when he was at his own house giving lessons in phrenology to numerous medical students or hospital pupils, the latter one evening placed on his table the head of a murderer who had been executed that very morning and which they had been able to obtain . " Oh, what a dreadful head ! " exclaimed the professor, and taking it in his hands, he felt it and used it as the subject for his lecture, knowing only that it was that of an executed man. He described its bumps, showing the prominence of the senses and of the desires, his gloomy and destructive character, his love of a solitude which favoured his dark designs, his sickly disposition, his ferocity combined with cunning, and everything which probably had led him to this kind of crime .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 131 The amazed students were listening to the tale of the life and the terrible misdeeds of Leger, which are recorded in the Assizes of Versailles .1 But the professor, continuing his demonstration, showed that this head, although so badly shaped, need not necessarily lead to crime . Other signs showed that he might have been able to resist if he had not been so profoundly ignorant, having been abandoned in his childhood . He might then have become, as he said, a simple worker without much intellect, but honestly working for his living. And now to sum up . Phrenology, sister of Physiognomony, is not infallible any more than the latter, but they are undoubtedly both of great inductive value . If it is asked why they are here connected with the divinatory arts, and especially why they are placed at their head, side by side with Astrology, we should answer :-These two sciences combined into one do constitute a very scientific and very sure . part of the Science of Destinies, which themselves are the whole of the art of divination . Knowledge of what life will bring us, that is what we ask of the seers, be they astrologers, cartomancers, chiromancers, etc . Now Destiny is written in the features of the face and the shape of the skull just as much as in the lines of the hand . This does not mean that this or that thing foretold will inevitably happen to you . It means, your line of destiny follows this or that direction . See whether you should accept or try to escape the events which logically it entails . And this destiny, why should it not be bound up with your character (natural qualities and defects) which induces you to perform this action rather than that other ? Having already pointed out the necessity in which the earnest seeker finds himself to rectify his opinion as soon as this is required, it is but proper that we should set right, in accordance with the progress of science, all the ancient ideas which need it. Phrenology is already a century old . Since then the study of the brain has been pursued and consequently of the local brain centres which, although guessed at, had taken a concrete form only with Gall . Now it had been observed that the skull and the brain were divided by a liquid and by membranes which considerably decrease the relation set up by the Scientist of Baden between the wealth of circumvolutions and the bumps of the head . Nevertheless this relation seemed sufficient to Broca and to ' This unhappy man had at the age of 28 withdrawn into the depth of the woods, on a

rock, and there he lived on game which he caught and devoured alive . One day he threw himself on a little girl of 15 who had strayed there, carried her off to his den, mutilated and violated her, then cut her into pieces for one of his horrible meals. When arrested by the Law, he made this appalling reply, " If I have drunk blood, it is because I thirsted for it ."

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 132 Ferrier to enable them to localise in the grey covering of the brain, fixed centres of motion and of sensory reception . However the War-the Great War-came, enabling the surgeons to make many more observations of the so often injured cerebrum of soldiers . And we were forced with the famous Dr . P . Marie to the conclusion that these centres, if sometimes inborn, are frequently modified by education ; on the other hand the recent researches of V . Monokow on the centres of motion indicate that if the latter present a hereditary structure, they acquire their functions by use and by education . It follows that the localisation of the faculties, considered by Gall as fairly certain, remains rather vague . The proof is that lesions in the nerve centres do not always entail the mental troubles foreseen by Phrenology if the latter were absolutely precise . For instance, memory can appear at any point of the cortical surface, which explains its varieties . Take the astounding case of the chessplayer Alekhine who can beat, with his back turned to them, twenty-eight eminent players who carefully watch their board ; here is a man who can locate in his brain 1792 squares and 896 pieces and follow the movements of the pieces without losing sight of one of them, until each of his opponents acknowledges himself beaten . What a special and almost monstrous bump he ought to have ! According to Dr. J. Laumonier, it would seem finally that the psychic faculties belong in common to several nerve elements and are not the property of one only . However this may be, it remains true that an enlightened education adapts them to the needs of collective existence . This is apt to be forgotten, says this physician, who sums up as follows :" At present, owing to a morbid sensitiveness, the tendency is to let each one `live his life .' To be sure the intellect does not gain by this, as is proved by the lack of balance throughout the world, but beneath the veneer of an overdeveloped culture and the mask of a material progress which wears us out prematurely, the elemental instincts regain so great a power that already the barbarism of prehistoric times forces our gates and invades our hearths ." 1 VI A Coming Science : Digitomancy Although we did not mention it in our divisions of Physiognomony, because it is as yet only in its very early stages, it is as well to speak here of a science which may be based on the appearance of finger1 Review La Pensee Fran¢aise ., 23rd March, 1920 .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 133 prints, and to which M . Georges-Anquetil was anxious to be the first to give a name . Unfortunately the word Dactylomancy, which would be appropriate, is already known ; it belongs to one of the main arts of divination, now out of date and without interest, which used to be practised (it deals with the use of the ring, and as will be seen, the name itself is inappropriate) . So as to avoid confusion, the word Digitomancy is suggested by M . Anquetil ; but it has the disadvantage of being badly constructed, being half Greek and half Latin . If we might offer another, it would be Pollexomancy, as it is the thumb in particular which is used for the prints . But whatever the name may be, the thing itself is known and is interesting . It is well known that the police adds to its personal descriptions the prints of the fingers, and of the thumb in particular (this it calls dactyloscopy) . It has as a matter of fact been observed that these prints differ in each individual, and are unalterable in each . There are no two men who have the same, any more than they have similar lines in the hand . Hence its great importance in the search for evildoers, many of whom were found, thanks to the prints left on articles touched by them in the course of their misdeeds . This identification (against which it is now tried to guard by the wearing of rubber gloves) was invented by M . Alphonse Bertillon, based on the numerous investigations on the subject made by Mr . Dastre and Mr. Lacassagne . The anthropological authorities were able to arrive at a classification of these prints, and there was even an idea of introducing them into civil life as a complement of the signature to notarially certified documents, commercial and otherwise, like a stamp, this human seal making errors and forgeries impossible. But then, thought M . Georges-Anquetil, if it is true that every man, every woman, thus bears an individual permanent and recognisable sign, is it not probable that the variety of the series corresponds to varieties of temperament, to a sign-manual similar to all the other morphological signs ? The Orientals had long ago discovered their importance ; they even claim that these kinds of vortices of fine and concentric lines bear a relation to the circumvolutions of the brain . Who knows, therefore, whether their more or less pronounced physical clearness does not correspond with a certain mental clearness ; in which case the intermediate shades, from perfect clearness down to confusion and breaks, would likewise have their meaning . We leave these thoughts to all those who occupy themselves with astral sign-manuals . Let them seek, with us, whether there is a possibility of classification and statistics . For everything is therein order to establish a digitomantic science (or pollexomantic, or dactyloscopic-take whichever word you prefer) it will be necessary to establish a law of correspondence and a law of frequency .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES And in this way a new chapter will be added to those dealing with the deductive divinatory arts . 134

VII Elements of Typology Without referring to traditional methods, or rather by reviving them with success, Paul Jagot in some interesting books' gives us a series of syntheses for the reading of signs-of fate which it was impossible for us to ignore in this Encyclopaedia, especially as it adorns it with a scientific cloak under which the golden vestment of the divinatory sciences can easily persist . And the proof that the author does not despise Astrology is found in his writing verbatim :" Do the stars exercise an influence over us ? Or does the cosmic harmony entail a strict correlation between all the phenomena which take place at the same moment ? I cannot state exactly which of these two hypotheses explains the connection between the appearance of the sky of nativity and fate, but what is important to observe is that this connection has been proved by experiment ." The presence in a horoscopic sky, he continues (we condense) of this or that particular element, corresponds both with a definite mode of reaction of the non-self on the self, and with definite psychic qualifications, with definite organic dispositions, with definite outer forms . And all this is explained by the law of causality, which, however, in no way entails the abolition of free will . Both are simply in continual conflict, and this drama is not without its greatness. Unfortunately most people let themselves go without resistance to their fate. The strong, the intellectual alone know how to conduct themselves . Having said this, and returning to the settled general principles, M . Jagot draws up the following rules :-

1.

PREDOMINANCE OF INSTINCT .

1. According to the Binary Law : the lengths denote statics (ideas, quality), and the breadths, dynamics (action, quantity) . Thus a narrow and long head corresponds to a similar hand, a similar writing, etc .

1 Revealing Signs of Character and Treatise of Occult Sciences and Practical Magic .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 135 2. According to the Ternary Law :Vegetativeness corresponds to the lower part of the face (from the chin to the base of the nose) . Sensitiveness corresponds to the medial part (from the base of the nose to the eyebrows) . Intellect corresponds to the upper part (forehead) . The lower part of the face thus gives information as to the animal nature, the orientation of physic needs and instincts . The medial part as to sentimental impulses, 2. PREDOMINANCE OF THE INTELLECT . imagination, impressionability. The upper part of the face as to thought, idealism, their quality and their importance . The predominance, insufficiency or balance of these regions therefore give indications by which to distinguish the instinctive type, the emotional, the mental . With the help of the Binary law, their qualitative intensities will be recognised by their height, their quantitative intensities by their breadth . In Chiromancy the fingers correspond to the up p er, intellectual part of the face, the mounts of the hand to the medial part, the palm to the lower part of the face . In Graphology the correspondences are :-Strokes and curves above the line, body of the writing, strokes and curves below . 3. According to the Quaternary Law, specially followed by Marc Haven, the types may be divided into :Lymphatic or phlegmatic, fat, broad, short, somnolent, soft, weak, lazy. Sanguine with stout corpulence, powerful assimilation, open red complexion, cheerful sensuality . Melancholy or nervy, with dull skin, slow digestion, taciturn mind, tenacity at work . Bilious or choleric, thin, yellow skin, hard pulse, active, daring, impatient, ambitious . According to the researches of Lacroze and Polti the shape of the nose is important here . Any upper concaveness indicates the first of these types (lymphatic). Any upper convexity indicates the nervy type. Any lower convexity indicates the bilious temperament. 3 . PREDOMINANCE OY Any lower concaveness indicates the sanguine . SENSITIVENESS.

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OCCULT

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Gary de Lacroze and Polti have described each of these types minutely. Their analysis is somewhat lengthy for reproduction here . Further these types combine and often produce mixed temperaments a table whereof can be drawn up . 4. According to the Quinary law, the Binary principle by its action on the Ternary produces geometrical forms which may be brought down to five main types according to whether a face can be drawn into a square, a circle, a triangle, a cone, an oval . (a) Square type-energetic nature, firm, settled, argumentative, observing, sceptical, ordered . (b) Triangular type-capricious, impulsive, cunning, dashing, contradictory, tyrannical, irritable . (c) Round type-initiative, impetuosity, courage, impudence, realism, excess, vanity, passions . (d) Oval type-impressionable, supple, versatile, facile, inspired, lazy, intuitive . (e) Conoid type-common sense, delicacy, calculation, calm, jovial, taste for pleasure, love of money . As to the chirological and graphological characteristics, these will usually be :In the square type-massive hand, spatulate fingers ; firm close writing with short strokes ; In the triangular type-thin hands, slender fingers ; thin writing, upper strokes long . SUMMARY OF THE TABLE OF CORRESPONDENCES ACCORDING TO P . JAGOT INFLUENCE OF

i

SUN

MOON

MARS

MERCURY

Tends to produce

Expansion

Absorption

Dynamic

Favour . .

Dash

Resistance

Expansive vitality Objective faculties

Static vitality Subjective faculties

Muscular Nervous strength strength Vital energy Adaptiveness

..

Predisposes to

Combative faculties Success Strategy

Discernment Intuition Individuality Assimilation Aisthetic Memory sense Synthetic Metaphysic Combative Inclines to

., i Homogeneous Intellectual Executive evolution evolution evolution

JUPITER

Convertibility Cohesion

Adaptive faculties Genius Diplomacy I Skill Sociability Practical

VENUS Harmony

Homogeneity Sensual sharpness Balance Harmony of assimilation Organising Attractive faculties faculties Order Charm Equity Affection Family Superficiality Priestly

Experimental Ethical evolution evolution

SATURN Concentration Hypertension Accumulation Constructive faculties Philosophy Mathematics

Harmonious Critical Emotional evolution

Abstract evolution

PHYSIOGNOMONY 137 In the round type-muscular hand, round fingers ; rounded writing with great curves . In the oval type-well shaped slim hand, conical fingers ; writing unequal and sloping . In the conoid type-fleshy hand, square fingers ; writing heavy, broad, lower strokes thick, heavy . 5. According to the Septenary law, we find the seven planetary types already studied in Astrology . We only refer to them in order to give a table of predispositions according to the researches and observations of P . Jagot and the chiro-graphological correspondences which he has discovered . We cannot fail to be struck by the deep relationships which exist between this table and the astrological data already given . Table of Chiro-Graphological Correspondences Solar Type :-Slender, yellow, dry hand, with very thin lines . Finger conical . Ring finger long . Writing long, full, ordered, harmonious, the T firmly and cleanly crossed . Lunar Type :-Plump soft hand, with short thumb, smooth and pointed fingers, lunar mount broad and big . Writing thin, sloping, round, open, end strokes upwards, T crossing weak . Martian Type :-Fleshy hard hand, thumb rounded, deep lines, spatulate fingers, mount of Mars prominent . Writing heavy, angular, square, legible, T crossings short, club-shaped, downward . Mercurian Type :-Hand long, fingers narrow at the top, little finger and thumb long but thin . Writing pleasant, rather high, end strokes upward, unequal, T crossings clean . . Jupiterian Type :-Hand large, broad, velvety, fingers medium, conical, mounts large, first finger long . Writing heavy but clear, high, broad, steady, with rounded lines, large capitals . Venus Type :-Hand short, fingers pointed, skin white, moist . Lines thin, heart line long . Writing without order, curved, sloping, pleasant, light, without T crossings, rather weak. Saturnian Type :-Hand long, with rectangular palm, finger joints knotty, mounts not very defined . Writing squat, angular, thin, close, without slopes, capitals or spaces . P. Jagot adds an eighth type, in which animalism predominates Earthy Type :-Hand elementary, bony, even, fingers spatulate, thumb broad, curved inwards . Writing awkward, unequal, heavy, without order or harmony .' ' See also the tables of correspondence drawn up by Papua in his Treatise of Practical Magic, p. 340 et seq. (published by Chacornac) .

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Having drawn attention to the rules of physiognomonic observation, the author studies the lack of balance (through excess or through insufficiency), the harmonies and the dissonances of the stars, the simple and double predominances, the possibilities of correction, then draws up a very interesting table of the combinations which give the greatest hopes of success, and which we reproduce below :In order to succeed, it is well to have, according to one's fate, the following additions :In Letters :-Mercury-Moon . In the Theatre :-Mercury-Venus-Jupiter . In the vocal Art :-Venus-Sun or Venus-Jupiter. In Painting :-Jupiter-Sun-Venus . In Music :-Venus Moon-Sun . In Oratory :-Mercury-Jupiter . In the exact Sciences :-Saturn-Mercury-Sun . In Finance :-Mercury-Jupiter. In Medicine :-Mercury-Mars-Saturn . In Politics :-Sun-Jupiter-Mercury.

But we must return to each of the planetary types as they are seen by Paul Jagot, for nothing is more instructive than to compare them with the astrological data given in our first chapter ; they will be supplemented, as has just been seen, by an eighth type, called earthy . The face is a living translation of the horoscope, aptly says the author. We find in it the powerful or attenuated sign of each celestial luminary, and as these signs are numerous, their connection, their interpretation (harmonious appearance, conjunction) even their composition (dissonant appearance-opposition, quadrature) . Let us remember that the sign-manual affects each part of the face. On the lower part of the face it gives information as to the instincts, on the middle part as to the feelings, on the upper as to the mentality. A mere photograph, thoroughly studied, is itself a document . And now we come to Typology proper .

Solar Type.-Form composed of lines rectilinear in the centre, ".,,

11

\

1

harmoniously curved, in wide sweep, at each end . Homogeneous division of the flesh on the bones and the muscles . Complexion mat on a slightly lemon ground . Face placed in a pure oval . According to Ledos, the head of the School of Planetary Physiognomony, the solarian (or soleian) has the face calm, noble, serious, the forehead arched, the eye at once gentle and severe, the eyeball

PHYSIOGNOMONY 139 saffron dotted with gold, eyelashes long, nose slightly aquiline with firm end, mouth medium with lips not very thick, red, the chin rounded, slightly projecting, medium figure and body without hair, hips arched, not much beard, but generally curly, quiet movements, measured step, voice pure, seductive . The solarian, who does not laugh easily and is not communicative, made to command, magnanimous, is not a great lover . He lives for himself, hence is rather unhappy in his home, his friendships, his family . Highly intelligent, he understands everything, but does not specialise . These remarks may be applied to the three parts of the face and the necessary deductions made . We need not go into detail . Lunar Type.-The lunar influence produces round forms, in segments of the circle, a sallow complexion, and predisposes to swelling . A round eye will therefore hint at a lunarian (or selenian) even if the rest is not of the type . Ledos, summed up by his pupil Leclercq, shows the selenian with a very broad prominent forehead, a humid and grey eye, a short nose with rounded end, a small mouth barely closed, the chin not very prominent . The female of this type has beautiful clear blue . eyes, the breasts high, small, firm and charming . Both men and women are frequently short-sighted . Their character is mobile, undecided, timid ; much imagination, vagueness of mind, resignation ; they fear conflict, love solitude ; they are intuitive, naturally religious-minded, sensual through the brain .' The female of the type is rather cold, but caressing, affectionate ; she sometimes has a strange power over men . Martian Type .-Straight tight features . Flesh in muscular masses, with prominent and clean angles . Complexion red . Face may be drawn into a square . Dynamically powerful . Generally the head is small, muscular, with high forehead and broad temples, thick eyebrows which easily meet, eyes open, daring and hard . Cheeks muscular and cheekbones prominent . Nose like an eagle's beak, with dilated nostrils . Mouth disdainful, chin square . Neck muscular and short . Shoulders broad . Chest bulging . Voice strong and harsh . Gait insolent . Strength, willpower, daring ; but also carelessness ; quick temper ; intolerance and brutal frankness . Everything passionately-good or evil . They are daring in love and know how to make themselves loved, but they do not forgive adultery . Passionate gamblers . Mercurian Type .--Face drawn into a lengthy oval . Flesh thin and flat . Greyish complexion . Body slender and well made . Delicate limbs, graceful and supple, quick hands. Keeps young-looking .

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The eyes are expressive, somewhat deep-set, brown, alert, sparkling, mobile. Nose rather long, straight, a little arched and pointed at the tip, with narrow nostrils . Mouth loose and turned up at the corners, with thin lips . Chin angular. Neck long and thin . Nervy, hence quick walk, rapid speech, voice pleasant and cheerful . Gentleness and politeness . Impatience quickly repressed . Tact and gentle mockery. Initiative. Calm in love . Great mental activity. Intellect lively, perspicacious, cunning, penetrating . Lies easily . Clever at getting out of a scrape . Natural eloquence and quick assimilation . Independence . Jupiterian Type.--Tissues in fleshy masses . Impression of brilliant health . Disposition to plethora, to. obesity. The face goes into a trapeze, the small base of which is on the chin . Thick-set . The Jupiterian grows fat into thickness, the lunarian in roundness ; the Venusian is sometimes chubby, but never fat . Solarians, Martians, Mercurians and Saturnians never grow fat . The Jupiterian has a well proportioned skull, two bumps in front, the eyes large, fine, smiling, the nose medium, fleshy, the mouth closed and rather large, the lips crimson, the chin round and dimpled . He goes bald early. Face open . Voice serious and pleasant . He has a sane, judicial, benevolent mind ; he laughs easily, is sociable, optimistic . He is a moralist and voluptuous, at the same time moderate, earnest, upright, observes laws and customs, rather bourgeois in one word, courteous towards women, devoted to his friends, philanthropic, family man . He likes the pleasures of the table, meetings, chairmanships, honours, etc . Penusian Type .-His features are sinuous, not round as in the lunar type, but like segments of an ellipse ; hence his flesh is divided into rounded chubby masses, with dimples . Pink complexion on white ground . The face goes into a rounded oval . The forehead is fine, smooth, the eyebrows short, the eye clear, almost flush with the head, with long lashes, soft and voluptuous glance . Nose straight, elegant . Mouth charmingly drawn. The bones of the face are nowliere seen . Hips broad and prominent . Walk easy, almost dancing, lascivious . Skin fine . The Jupiterian makes for social success . The Venusian irradiates by his personal magnetism, his charm . He is communicative, amiable, gentle, sensitive, affectionate, caressing, often prodigal, never envious . He sees everything rosy . He is inconstant in love, likes luxury, prefers glitter to solidity . He often has talent, rarely genius .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 141 Saturnian Type .-Features rough, irregular, with acute angles . Prominent bones . The face goes into a long drawn rectangle in height . The forehead trapezoid opposite to the Jupiterian . Glance severe, concentrated, piercing . Nose large, bony, prominent, arched, thin at the tip . Mouth narrow and thin . Cheekbones bony. Shoulders narrow. Back bent . Hips straight . Thin with large hones, big hands and feet . Skin brown, dry . Often the figure is tall, the walk slow . He is serious, stern, cold, solemn, with slow but firm thought, slow to speak, good memory . He is insincere, persevering, clever, resolute, independent, but distinguished, patient, inquisitive, solitary, pessimistic, methodical, systematic, defiant, vindictive. He loves few but thoroughly . Without enthusiasm . All great thinkers are under this influence . Earthy Type .-This one is but an outline . He is mediocre, materialistic, with face square and angular, thick eyebrows, horizontal above hard eyes . Nose wide, mouth tight with pronounced maxillaries, complexion earthy, voice harsh . He is massive, careless of conventions, awkward, loves the soil, works hard, does not give himself away, has solid common-sense, is vulgar in his tastes . Yet there are earthy types who are artists, but without go, scholars but experimenters . Let us try a rapid conclusion . It has been observed, and we repeat it :-Whichever method of deduction may be used, thanks to the traditional horoscopic scheme more or less defined by astronomic mathematics, thanks to morphological physiognomony more or less defined by planetary typological observation, thanks even to onomancy made more or less subtle by kabbalistic methods, it is possible to divide persons into classes, and nothing is more interesting than to study their signs-manual . But the signmanual is never simple . Hence its study becomes more difficult, but yields also a greater intellectual pleasure . We must therefore beware of rash judgments . We must also remember, and this constitutes a sure advance on Tradition, that a celestial influence of whatsoever kind is in itself neither good nor evil ; it depends on whether or not it harmonises with others . Thus the influence of Saturn, so greatly dreaded, has produced men of high qualities when it has been, not corrected, but supported in a beneficial sense by another . The influence of Saturn is an influence of concentration. Well then, let it be found only in the upper part of the face, fertilising the intellect, whilst the middle is influenced by Venus and the lower part by Mercury, and we shall have a high abstract intellect,

142 THE OCCULT SCIENCES with taste for the arts, in particular music, and also a resisting and nervy active type, easily adaptable, for instance a composer of scholarly rhythm who, in spite of the difficulties of his life, will triumph over obstacles and become famous . We have also seen that fortunate harmonies have been observed between influences which by themselves would be less fortunate . Thus Moon and Jupiter in harmony may lead to fortune, although the selenian influence induces carelessness ; Mars properly united to Mercury makes a good business man, etc . On the other hand, if nothing tempers a bad influence of Mars and Sun, this will produce violent despotism, and in the case of Venus in a bad position with the Moon, the result may be the most complete amorality leading to salaciousness, even to proxenetism . And in the same way the different parts of the body give information as to the modality of action and of thought . Thus the solar face suggests a clear and rapid thought which becomes soft and subjective in a lunar face, methodical in a Jupiterian, deep and slow in a Saturnian . Thus also the solar mouth shows a cultivated sensuality which becomes inordinate in a person with a selenian mouth, intense but sane with the Martian mouth, inquisitive with the Mercurian, voluptuous with the Venusian, animal with the earthy mouth, etc . In short, when we have thoroughly saturated ourselves with the nature of each astral influence, we shall easily be able to find its result in each particular case . VIII

Psycho-Physics

It will not be surprising that some great thinkers, by means of modernising tradition, and bringing into the light the old divinatory arts, should have tried to make the practice of Typology absolutely scientific, adapting it to various uses . Just as M . Chouasnard has tried to rid Astrology of the ancient cliches, just as M . Rem, as we shall see presently, has done the same for Chiromancy, so Typology has been transformed in the hands of M . Louis Gastin, and has definitely become Psycho-Physics, having its Journal and its Institute . All Science is vain, says M. Gastin in his programme of action, which has as its aim merely the amelioration of life . The science of the Soul must become the subject of studies which are absolutely objective, precise, utilitarian . And he invented the psycho-diagnosis, which is for the individual the synthetic label of his temperament, his faculties, his abilities . We have ourselves above referred to the importance of a psycho-predictive portrait . The two might supplement each other.

PHYSIOGNOMONY 143 But M . Gastin remains on a ground bare of all occultism, although he does not in any way deny intuition, psychic phenomena, or certain of the data of the Kabbala which we shall study later on, or of Astrology which we reviewed some time ago . He even wants to start, and it will have been started by the time this book is published, a Laboratory of Psycho-Physics, where diagnosticians trained in his school will draw up tables which will be used for orientation and professional selection, the choice of vocation in the child, matrimonial . harmony, prison reform, moral orthopaedics, mental hygiene, pedagogy, etc . The following is an outline of the chief problem solved by M . Gastin, that of the temperaments . His doctrine is earlier than the books of M . Jagot . He worked at it for a long time with the late Albert Jounet . We find it summed up in a review of High Sciences which was then called The Sphinx (1922), but republished works which had appeared previously . This doctrine is connected with Hermetism and in part derives from Tradition ; that is why it has a place in this Encyclopaedia . After studying as a matter of fact the symbol of the Sphinx and that of the Cross, M . Gastin comes to the following conclusion The Sphinx with the body of a bull, the claws and tail of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the head of an angel, is the expression of the human quaternary, and its correspondences are as follows Ox . . Lion . . Eagle Angel . .

.. .. .. ..

Instinctive Anaemic . . Intellectual .. Will

. . Lymphatic . . Nutritive . . Sanguine . . Respiratory . . Nervy . . Mental . . . . Bilious . . Muscular

. . Lymph . . Chest Blood . . . . Head . . Nerve power Body of thought . . Mental energy{Centre and action .

Which means that if every being at bottom has instincts, feelings, thoughts and will, yet there is in each case a co-efficient of these elements and it is the difference between these co-efficients which denotes, the difference between temperaments . For instance the lymphatic temperament is more favourable for the development of instincts, the sanguine for the passions, the nervous for ideas, the bilious for mental energy. The Cross too is a symbol of the quaternary, but from another point of view which is summed up in the following table :DRY

Earth Passive Cold

Spiritual World Nervous

Bilious

Fire

Lymphatic Sanguine Water Air Material World MOIST

Active Hot

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This table contains the following indications :1 . The binary-spiritual (above) and material (below) ; 2. The four temperaments in pairs ; 3. The passive polarity at the left and the active polarity at the right ; 4. The relation between the ancient four elements (elementary qualities of matter) grouping themselves in dry and moist, in hot and cold .

Thus we get the table of temperaments :N. Nervous. Dry . Cold . Earth . B. Bilious . Drv. Hot . Fire . S. Sanguine . Moist . Ilct. Air . L . Lymphatic . Moist . Cold . Water .

And even a table of the evolution of the great races N. Yellow race. B. Black race . S . Red race . L. White race.

Below appear the details of the physical, physiological and psycholocharacteristics in three tables, in which the symbols of the sphinx and of the cross are combined .

gical

1. TABLE OF PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS SPIRITUAL WORLD

Body-thin and dry, delicate skin . Nose-convex, pointed tip . .Lips-thin, drooping corners. Chin-pointed and receding . Part of head predominant-Posterio-superior (brain) . Hand-cold and dry, bony . Fingers-long, smooth and thin-pointed tips . Lines of the hand-fine and thin, very numerous .

(-) Cold

Eagle

N

Ox

L

Thin and angular, flesh firm and dry . Convex, rounded tip. Thin, tight and straight. Strong and projecting . Anterio-superior (forehead) . Dry and hot, hard . Long, smooth and fat-pointed or rounded tips Fine and deep-numerous .

DRY

B

Human head

S

Lion

Moist Body-well filled and round, flesh soft . Accentuated . Flesh firm . Nose-concave, round tcp . Concave, pointed tip . . Lips-thick, pale, soft Thick, red and firm . Chin-large and undecided . Square or round . Part of the head predominant-Posterio-inferior Anterio-inferior (jaw) . (neck) . Hand-moist and cold, soft . Hot and moist, firm . Fingers-short, knotty and fat, thick tips . Short, knotty and thin, square tips . Lines of the hand-white, broad, not numerous . Red and deep, not numerous . MATERIAL WORLD

Hot (+)

PHYSIOGNOMONY

145

2 . TABLE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL . CHARACTERISTICS . SPIRITUAL WORLD Complexion-pale, somewhat YELLOW. Mat, dusky, almost ]BLACK . Most developed sense-sight and hearing . Touch . Predispositions to illnesses-nervous affecLiver, kidneys, bowels, neurosis . tions. Neuralgia . Chief need--mental exercises . Rest of nerves . Muscular exercises, general activity . Writing-quick, pointed, sloping . Firm, equal, upright . Movements-quick, short . Firm, precise, large . Step-quick, short steps . Firm, slow, big steps . Speech-quick, abrupt . Authoritative, laboured . DRY . N I B Human head Eagle (-) Cold . Hot (-}-) Ox . L ~ S Lion Moist Complexion-pale and WHITE . Coloured, almost RED . Most developed sense-taste : Smell . Predisposition to illnesses-affections of the Inflammations, haemorrhages, rheumatism . glands, catarrhs . Chief need-food . Air . Writing-soft, big, rounded . Quick, not orderly . Movements-slow and soft, careless . Quick, alert . Walk-slow, short steps . Quick, big steps . Speech-soft, quiet, careless . Quick, assured. MATERIAL WORLD . 3 . TABLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS MATERIAL WORLD Moral Faculties-easily impressed . Versatile . Great force of character. Strong will, authorCharacter, irritable . Pessimism. Imaginaity, ambition . Susceptibility . Quick temper . tive exaggeration . Envy. Quiet bad Despotism and pride. temper. Intellectual faculties-quick understanding . Quick worker . Quick of decision and comCreative imagination . Love of detail and mand. Positivism. Disdain of detail. Rational thought . physical work . Dry . . Human head. N ~ B Cold . Eagle (-) Hot (-(-) Ox L S Lion. Moist . Moral Faculties-calm thoughtful character . Affection and mobility . Benevolence . Passive strength . Indifference . Greediness Optimism . Passionate tendencies. Quick and laziness . temper and liar . Intellectual Faculties-methodical and slow Quick and absorbing work . Activity bodily worker. Passive mind . Practical positivism . rather than mental . SPIRITUAL WORLD . Of course the majority of temperaments result from combinations of these elements L .S .N .B . according to the one which predominates . Thus we obtain a table of this kind :-L .S .N .B ., L .B .S .N ., S .L .N .B ., S .B .L .N ., B .N .S .L ., B .L .S .N ., etc ., altogether 24 types .

146

THE OCCULT SCIENCES But, observes Mr. Gastin, the quaternary classification is not carried out in practice . The binary is generally considered sufficient . For instance :Two intellectual types, N .B . and B .N., the one more passive, the other more active. Two corporal types, the active S,L . and the passive L .S. Two active types, B .S. and S.B., two passive, N.L. and L.N., two subjective and two objective . Then he gives examples of binary types studied with care, which we reproduce so as to clarify this marvellous investigation . INTELLECTUAL TYPES N.B.-Hieroglyphically, it is the Eagle which draws Man towards the summit . Passive mentality, imagination predominates . The type of the pessimist more or less self-willed . Complexion dark, black on yellow ground. B.N.-Man has , tamed the Eagle. Mental energy dominates imagination and uses it for the purpose of its ambition. The Proud type. Complexion darker still, yellow on a ground almost black . CORPORAL TYPES S.L.-Hieroglyphically, the Lion draws the Ox. Work, whilst remaining methodical, becomes more active . The type of the calm optimist . The complexion is light, but coloured, white on red ground. The contact of the hand is firm and moist. L.S.-The Ox holds the Lion back . (Under the ardent influence of the Sanguine, the Lymphatic wakes up sensual) . The complexion is lighter still, a little red on a white ground. The contact of the hand, still moist, is softer and colder . ACTIVE TYPES B .S .-The Human Head leads the Lion . The will shows itself more benevolent, but at the same time more or less mobile . The active or enterprising self-willed type. Almost absolute independence . The complexion is copper-coloured, red on dark ground . The contact of the hand is warm and hard. S.B .-The Lion draws the Man along. Action dominates thought . Type of the Optimist conscious of his physical and psychical superiority . Benevolence and amiability are protecting, and at the same time susceptible . The complexion is colourful--dark on red ground .

PHYSIOGNOMONY 147 PASSIVE TYPES N.L.-It is the Eagle which tries to draw the Ox along . Idealism more or less practical and bourgeois . Intuition is calm and rather objective . Type of the calm or melancholy pessimist . The hand is cold and bony. The complexion is pale, white on yellow ground . L.N.-The Ox holds the Eagle back . Reflection and method temper and regulate Imagination. Type of the contemplative . Hand cold and soft. The complexion is paler still, . milky . More or less yellow on white ground. OBJECTIVE TYPES B.L.-The Human Head leading the Ox. Calm and positive despotism . Quietly ambitious type, in whom will predominates ; Iron hand in a velvet glove . The hand is hard and rather cold . Complexion white on dark ground . L.B.-The Ox leading the Man. Hidden ambition, stubborn work . Calmly self-willed or persevering type. The contact of the hand is cold and rather soft. The complexion is lighter than in the B .L.dark on white ground . SUBJECTIVE TYPES N.B.-Hieroglyphically, it is the Eagle who tries to fly away, but the Lion holds him fast to the earth . Idealism but little realised . Actively pessimistic type in whom the intuition of the nervous type shews itself-the misunderstood inventor . A good artist who produces on condition that he can go on quickly . Hand bony and warm . Complexion red on yellow ground . B.N.--The Lion dominates the Eagle . Feelings always excessive . He is passionate . Actively and hardened pessimist . The hand is warm and dry. The complexion is yellow on red ground . We have said enough to make the method of Mr . Gastin understandable . But only attendance at his Institute can give complete information on Psycho-Physics, a dawning science of marvellous social interest.

CHAPTER III CHIROMANCY I GENERAL WE shall in the one word Chiromancy include chirognomony, invented

by Captain d'Arpentigny, which is morphological physiognomony applied to the hand (therefore dealing only with its outward shape), chirology, expression preferred by Mr . Rem and the " scientifics " because it excludes all idea of occultism, and finally chiromancy properly so-called, the good old chiromancy which studies in the hand the astral sign-manual, in which Desbarolles believed, that great master of an art which it is possible to modernise without depreciating its ancestors . And we shall keep this word sacred, just because it takes into account occultism without the enlivening of which the science of the hand appears to us incomplete . The hand is the movement ; the movement is the word ; the word is the soul ; the soul is man . Let us sum up the whole in these words the soul of man is in his hand . Chiromancy is the art of divining the soul of a person and his fate by examining his hand . Chiromancy corroborates the astrological and the physiognomonic data . It is easy to see the interest of this triple consultation, each one being like a physician who gives his opinion . An average is struck from these which has a great likelihood of being a precious and definite information from which by deduction it is possible to form a view as to the future of the person interested . It always remains understood that free will is able to modify the natural inclination written in the horoscope, in the features of the face, in the lines of the hand . But, it will be asked, have these lines really any evidential value . And first of all are they not simply formed by manual work ? In no way, seeing that in the working classes, where they ought to be very marked, they are but slight, and much less marked than in people who lead a more intense intellectual life . Further, they exist in a young child, even in a new born baby who has hardly had time to make many 148

CHIROMANCY 149 movements . Further yet, paralysis leads to their disappearance . 1 Therefore let us say it firmly :-The lines of the hand correspond to the vitality of the individual. We shall see presently that they also correspond to his temperament and its consequences . Desbarolles, whom we have just mentioned, with the conscience of a great honest man and his indubitable genius of perspicacity studied for many long years the physiological problem presented by these lines. He suggests a scientific explanation of the phenomenon by the animal electricity which is contained in the corpuscles discovered by Pacini which are found in every hand, especially in the palm, the mounts and the tips of the fingers. These reservoirs, he thinks, endow us with an extraordinary sensitiveness which remains in relation with the brain, with all the other senses, with the whole organism . And this would explain why every organic activity is reflected in the hand, and enables us to read in it our physical and mental constitution . Desbarolles goes farther . He claimed to be able to foretell the illnesses with which the client was threatened, because already he saw their germ . . . . s And why not ? Why in the same way should not an acute observer be able to foresee, marked in the lines of the palm, the dangerous periods in an existence? Thus Chiromancy would be a science more exact even than Physiognomony and than Graphology which anyone sharp enough can lead astray by disguising his handwriting or by looking stern . Madame de Thebes, according to Desbarolles, claimed (in 1917) that Chiromancy is in fact a science which has its definite settled and verifiable laws . She wished that a Learned Society should be formed for its close study and to accumulate for this purpose properly checked documents . She denied that there was anything in it which belonged to the Kabbala or to Magic . It is pure Physiology 1 she would exclaim, just as anthropology or ethnology . Neither does it in any way, as we have said, fetter our liberty . There is no fatality because there are signs of character and of fate . The will remains entire . Besides, if it is in the left hand that fate is especially written, it is in the right hand that we find possibilities of modifying it . Born from the civilisations of India and of Egypt, and nursed jointly with Chaldean Astrology, Chiromaney fell into discredit when bunglers and charlatans exploited it without sufficient study and with the sole desire of making money . It is but half a century ago that Desbarolles and d'Arpentigny rescued it from forgetfulness and took it away from the quacks of Divination. ' At death the lines disappear little by little, beginning with the slightest . ' See on this point farther on the note relating to Mr . Georges Muchery .

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The hand must be looked upon as a sort of pentacle, as a symbol which Nature gives us to decipher . But we must not seek for absolute certainties in it . The obstacle to the spread of Chiromancy lies in the lack of confidence of many, and also in the demands of those who want to know their to-morrows with a precision and with details such as on other subjects they do not ask for a hundredth part from an expert, for instance from a meteorologist or from their doctor ! Let us also remember that the lines of the hand traced at birth under the influence of the stars, are modified as we get older (and not by chance) as the result of changes which take place in our existence or of acts of will by which we have thwarted our fate . Chiromancy thus serves to prove free-will when reasoning fails ! We shall see later that we must study not merely the lines of the hand to " make them speak," but also its shape and its movements . A hand meticulously cared for may for instance belong to a vulgar soul which reveals itself by movements resembling it, whilst a coarser and less clear hand may by its noble and frank movements prove that work may injure it without touching (far from it!) the uprightness of him who uses it to earn his bread . Look at an honest labourer and at a courtesan of low degree . The latter from professional necessity, and because she has no more urgent task, will have hands " well made," soft, very clean, adorned with carmined nails ; the hands of the former will be calloused, heavy, the nails still earthy . And yet what a moral difference ! The chiromancer will not make a mistake . The Ancients found in the hand the seven reservoirs of astral influence (Desbarolles likened them to a magnetic phenomenon) corresponding to the types of the seven planets which they knew . Thus they had observed that in the Venusians the root of the thumb was always strong and lined ; the Jupiterian had the same sign at the base of the first finger, and so on as to these celestial influences ; they were all revealed at the base of the fingers by a small fleshy protuberance (or if it be absent, by a lined depression) . These protuberances are called the mounts (mount of Venus, of Jupiter, etc .). The Ancients had likewise discovered that the fundamental lines of the hand correspond to the construction of our being . It is by numerous and checked observations and notes-how many thousands during so many centuries !-that they have settled-and we carry on their tradition-the correspondence which thus exists between the qualities and abilities of the individual on the one hand, and on the other hand the length, the depth, the colour, the tracing of the lines of the hand .

CHIROMANCY 151 Therefore we shall be careful in Chiromancy to notice the size of the hand, its general colour, its shape, its temperature, its mounts, its lines and their direction, their strength and their colour, the length and shape of the fingers, the appearance of the nails and the hair, the grain of the skin, and finally particular signs such as squares, circles, stars, dots, crosses, spots, etc ., etc . All these elements are useful. And if, after having applied them, we wish to translate them astrologically, we can with Mr . Jagot classify them in the following manner which will give us an initial typological indication :Solar hand :-Elegant, well-proportioned, slightly lemon in colour . Martian hand :-Massive, fleshy, red . Selenian (or lunar) hand :-Soft with rounded fingers . Mercurian hand :-Thin, slender, with pointed fingers . Venusian hand :-Chubby, pink on white ground, short, with conical fingers . Jupiterian hand :-Strong, well covered, uniformly deep pink . Saturnian hand :-Long, bony, thin, dark. Earthy hand :-Coarse, with square or spatulate fingers . With, of course, all possible combina-

tions. But let us go into detail .

On the other hand and without any explanations beyond those given in the table opposite (and it will at once be understood, after reading what precedes and what we have said as to PsychoPhysics) here is the meaning which Mr . Louis Gastin attaches to the hand . His chirological method will easily be seen from it . II Outward shape and appearance o f the Hand

It is possible to appreciate this without the knowledge of the persons observed, and thus to know them a little, without having spoken to them, without having studied their hands, and joining this knowledge

152 THE OCCULT SCIENCES to that which is given by their faces, to obtain some support for the distrust or the sympathy with which we enter into relations with them . And here, as farther on, for the sake of clearness and the ease of study, we shall proceed by explanatory tables :A. Well proportioned hand :-General poise in the individual . Hand too short :-Tendency to bad character . Hand too long :-Interfering mind, maniacal . Woman's hand very narrow :-Difficult confinements . Hand which, at the end of the outstretched arm, touches the knee :-Bad character, fighter, self-willed . Hand large in comparison with the body :-Smartness, guile . Hand somewhat long with short fat fingers :-Neglect, laziness, lightheadedness . Hand fleshy and well articulated :-Long life . Hand hollow and badly articulated :-Short life. Hand long, thin, narrow :-Dominative, egotism, unsociability. Hand short and thin :-Avarice, tendency to gossip . Hand fat and chubby :-Choice people (if in addition it is well shaped) . Hand badly shaped, twisted :-Bizarre people . Hand bulging :-Luck, success even without great effort, especially in finance. Hand soft, pale and swarthy :-Perfidy . Hand cold, smooth, impassive :-Egotism, lack of sensitiveness . Hand white, even not reddening in the air : Impenetrability, relentlessness . Hand supple, a little wrinkled :-Goodness, benevolence, amenity . Hand hard and wrinkled :-Fighting character . B .-TEE FINGERS .

Fingers well proportioned :-Good character. Fingers small and thin :-Tendency to eccentricity, to mania . Fingers well apart :-Egotism, intellect, self-confidence . Fingers set close together :-Discretion, reasoning power. Fingers bent back towards the back of the hand :-Smartness, guile . Fingers separated at the base and meeting at the top :-Omen of misery . Fingers close together at the base :-Economy, discretion. Thumb leaning towards the other fingers :-Cynicism, avarice . Thumb habitually enclosed in the hand :-Nullity of intellect, lack of will-power . First finger leaning towards the thumb :-Egoistical ambition. Ring finger longer than first finger :-Intellectual good luck, material bad luck . First finger longer than ring finger :-Material success, love of pleasure . Middle finger leaning towards first finger :-Epicurean phiiosophy . Middle finger leaning towards ring finger :-Love of advertising, love of arts . Ring finger leaning towards little finger :-Art taking counsel from science . Ring finger equal or almost to middle finger :-Love of gambling, of adventure .

CHIROMANCY

153

C.-THE NAILS .'

Nails naturally pink :-Constancy, firmness. Nails twisted, obtuse :-Independence, rapacity . Nails pointed at the end of thin fingers :-Weak lungs . Nails dark and long :-Dangerous people . Nails short :-Love of fighting and quibbling, irony . Nails short and hard :-Bad temper, long life . Nails small, covered with flesh-sensuality . Nails spotted with white :-Nervousness, happiness . Nails spotted with black :-Sign of bad luck . Nails soft :-Weakness, lack of will-power . Nails breaking :-Weak health. Nails hard and bent back :-Ambition, spite, passion if they are pointed . Nails pointed :-Imagination, laziness, love of the arts . Nails conical :-Feeling for beauty, goodness, truth. Nails flat, broad, a little curved at the end :-Guile, dissimulation . Nails grey, pale and round :-Dangerous person . Nails bitten :-Nervousness, irritability, melancholy (mania called onichophagy) Nail of little finger defective :-Weak bowels. Nail of ring finger with quick deformed :-Heart weakness . Nails "watch glass" shape :-Broncho-pulmonary suppurations . 2 Nails grooved lengthwise :-Superabundance of nervous fluid . Nails long :-Timidity, reserve, meticulousness .

D.-COLOUR. 3

White and transparent :-Indifferent and soft nature . White and soft :-Lymphatic nature . Pink with transparent veins :-Benevolence. Red :-Sanguine complexion, medium health . Purplish red :-Laziness or bad health . Swarthy with pink tints :-Good health, good character . Dark, inclined to greenish yellow :-Bad temper, spite . A hand should be slightly swarthy, with pink tints, and veins slightly transparent, that is a sign of benevolence, of goodness, of good health (Rem) . Half breeds, even with a Are the nails possibly the link between the fluids and the flesh ? white skin, for several generations keep the sign of their race in their nails . Balzac says, " The line where our flesh ends and the nail begins, contains the inexplicable and invisible mystery of the constant transformation of our fluids into horn ." Are the nails possibly fluid solidified in the air ? 2 Observation of Dr. P . Marie . $ Madame Fraya, the great chiromancer, attaches a particular importance to the colour of the hand . She goes so far as to assert that this colour is affected by the influence of the subconscious before an event, expected or not, takes place which is capable of upsetting destiny .

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E .-HAIR. Hand (of a man) without hair :-Effeminate.

Hand normally hairy :-Good complexion, good nature . Hand hairy on back, calloused in palm :-Heavy and animal mind . Lower part only hairy :-Great vitality, sign of wit . Too much hair :-Instability. Hair scattered :-Temperament lacking order . Proverb :-Vir pilosus aut libidinus aut fortis (a hairy man is amorous or strong) . It is told that Conde having been admitted one day, or rather one night, to the house of Ninon de Lenclos and not having given to the famous courtesan sufficient proofs of his amorous prowess, the lady suddenly took his hand, which was very hairy, and exclaimed not without an assumed admiration, " Oh, Monseigneur, how strong you must be ! " III Types of Hands There are four well defined types of hands, according to whether they are pointed (that is to say having all the fingers pointed), square, conical or spatulate . Let us take them one by one . Pointed hands, that is to say with pointed fingers . "Pointed fingers," says Henri Rem, "offer a conduit free and without obstacle, and in this resemble the magnetised points of lightning conductors ; they easily draw in and emit fluid, consequently absorb spontaneously surrounding ideas and emit them in the same manner . Hence the inspirations, the illuminations, the inventions which flow from pointed fingers and . make dreamers, poets and inventors ." To the pointed fingers therefore belong intuitions, arts, ideas, theories, inventions . The pointed hand is the hand of the imaginative, the psychist, the idealist, the aristocrat (or rather the artistocrat, as Gerard de Lacaze-Duthiers would say), the hand of the elect . But alas ! it is not well fitted for the battle of life, for reasoning, for materiality, for effort . Therefore it is also sometimes the hand of laziness, of impulsiveness, of malformation, of exuberance, the hand of luxury, of joy, of charm . It is the hand of the great lovers, the pretty mistresses, the demi-mondaines . The smooth pointed hand belongs to the poet, the artist, the inventor . If it has philosophical knots (see later), there will be conflict between inspiration and calculation . If material knots are added to it, positive qualities will correct exaggerated idealism .

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155

TYPES OF HANDS

POINTED .

CONICAL .

SQUARE .

SPATULATE .

Henri Rem quotes as examples of the pointed hand :-In politics Robespierre ; in painting Raphael, Perugino, Correggio, Antonia de la Gandara and most of the imaginative painters ; in literature Milton, Shakespeare, Schiller, Goethe, Chateaubriand, Musset, the elder Dumas, George Sand.

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES Victor Hugo had at first pointed and smooth fingers . Later on they became conical and knotty, the philosophical knot having come up little by little, and the knot of material order having become developed. Alterations of this kind are not rare ; but never in the opposite way will knotted fingers be seen to become smooth, nor spatulate fingers become pointed . Square hand.-It has the joint with the nail ending in a square by a clear cut . It indicates poise in the character, the taste for meditation, ideas perhaps bourgeois, but in any case firm, clear, well settled . The uncompromising, the intolerant especially have the middle finger very square. The others are at least good philosophers, methodical, cool, thinking and calculating with common sense, executing with order, energy, loving justice, not apt to initiative (the heritage of the pointed finger) but precise, prudent, disciplined, logical in thought, reasoning, deductive . The hand of reason, of duty and of command . These qualities are strengthened if the fingers have knots at the articulation of the joints . These knots, while in fact not very necessary to the square finger, sign of solid judgment, are the more necessary to the pointed finger whose defects they minimise . If by an excess of malformation the square finger attains the shape of a ball, a tendency to murder may be feared. In France more square hands than spatulate hands have been noticed, " that is to say more brains organised for the theory of science than men capable to apply it ." The Germans, more able in carrying out, have an abundance of spatulate hands . Some celebrities with square hands :In Politics :-Louis XIV, Vauban, Turenne, Guizot, Fallieres, Clemenceau . In Literature :-Boileau, Voltaire, the younger Dumas, Paul Hervieu . In Art :-Holbein, Albert Diirer, Le Poussin, Corot, Rodin . In the Theatre :-Frederic Lemaitre, Rachel, Adelina Patti, Sarah Bernhardt, Got, Leloir, Emma Calve, Andree Megard, Marthe Mellot .

Conical hand.-The hand of reason and of intuition, the philosophical hand par excellence. It is partly the square, partly the pointed hand, therefore almost ideal . It is seen in most people of talent if not of genius. It is the hand of him who can understand everything, and love everything, who can acknowledge his errors, be benevolent, friendly, indulgent, the friend of peace and harmony, of order and comfort. The hand of Moliere, La Fontaine, Rousseau, Lamartine, Augier, Mend6s, Sully-Prudhomme, Berthelot, Paul Deschanel, Horace Vernet, Delaroche, Meissonnier, Diaz, Gerome, the brothers Coquelin, Dejazet, Rejane, Berthe Bady, Jane Granier, Arlette Dorgere, Duse, Simone, Robinne, Segond-Weber, Cecile Sorel, Loie Fuller, etc .

CHIROMANCY 157 Spatulate hand.-Spatula shaped fingers, with the nail joint almost flat (exception must be made in the case of deformation owing to the use of tools) . The hand of instinct, of feelings but little restrained, of the material mind, of revolt (most revolutionaries have these finger signs) . Spatulate fingers belong to the active man who acts before thinking, who is too self-confident, and who is often ruined by his pride . Those with spatulate fingers are fond of the open air, of daring, of hunting, of travelling, of colonisation, of sailing, or manual work . They dislike bureaucracy, sedentary occupations, are not much inclined to art and elegance, are gourmand rather than gourmet, artisans rather than artists, lovers of liberty . A very spatulate thumb indicates quick decision ; if the first finger -need for domination, for command ; if the middle, love of culture, of construction, in one word of material creation . If the ring finger, it indicates a type meticulous, not very inventive, imitative . The spatulate hand is resolute rather than resigned . It is often found in Brittany, in the North. A hard and smooth spatulate hand understands business, is afraid of nothing. If soft, it loses the love of work, but retains that of action (journeys, feasts, walks, etc) . On the other hand the influence of the knots (which we shall go into later) may modify it . Spatulate hands were those of Napoleon III, Lamennais, Fernand Labori, Rubens, Rembrandt, Bouguereau, Andre Antoine . Mixed Hand and Elementary Hand .-As will be supposed, there are few hands which can be completely classified into the above pure types . Many are mixed, having fingers of varying kinds, which will in that case keep their particular meaning . As to the elementary hand, it recalls the earthy planetary type of which we have spoken . It also is earthy and is often found in the country. The fingers are thick, massive, it is the hand of the peasant, instinctive, of the rudimentary being. This hand abounds in Lapland . It is the helpless hand of the born slave . The classification of the hand is not always the same with different chirologists, although in the end they all obtain the same results . By way of example, here is the method adopted by Julien Leclercq in his book, The Character and the Hand (published by Juven) :We divide, he says, into four classes the hands of people of which we have collected the picture 1 . Intellectual hands. 2 . Brilliant hands . 3. Passionate hands. 4. Practical hands .

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If we had to draw up a system, we should have to add at least two more classes :5. Vulgar hands . 6. Insignificant hands . This division is not theoretical . The method is of the simplest . I confine myself to examining the documents which I have in my hands, and I compare them by taking into account nothing but the sketches which I have before my eyes . And thus I make my groups . Chance will have it that I find four ; the exact remembrance which I have of other hands enables me to complete my division . There remains but one thing to be done-put a label on each group . Here the character, more or less known beforehand, of the personalities in question intervenes together with the chirognomic information gained, and I try to find a common plane, as extensive as possible, on which these personalities may meet . The description of the various hands and the definition of the corresponding characteristics must be hinted at rather than definite . The intellectual hand is fleshy and half soft, often bony and dry, but never soft or fat . The fingers are strong without being thick at the root, and seem rather long . Their shape is drawn out without being either slim or thin, this being the shape common to this class . It is never short, or even square. Never small, but large or medium . Its parts are balanced, none predominant . The bottom of the hand, which is larger, would not, however, be noticed in relation to the top . The corresponding intellectual character is governed by principles and ideas . It is patient and persevering in its ways . It proceeds after ripe reflection. Not at all or only slightly supple, not be influenced . Methodical and constant work . The brilliant hand is medium or small, never large . The palm is fleshy without being hard, half soft, never bony or dry . This palm is apparently stronger than the fingers which are loose, never thick, rather long . The lower part of this hand, especially towards the mount of Venus, is apt to attract attention . In any case neither thick nor thin. Not square, neither short. It is pretty. The brilliant character is ruled by appearances . It is sociable and malleable . Its instability preserves it from being absorbed . Anxious to attract attention, it prefers rapid methods, schemes and systems being foreign to it ; it is naturally clever and improvises its actions. It proceeds by intuition . Suppleness, assimilation, varied abilities . Work easy but inconstant . The passionate hand is fleshy, resisting, hard, sometimes dry, always strong . The fingers are thick and rather short . It is small, medium or large . If small it seems round ; if large it is apt to be vulgar . It

CHIROMANCY 159 never looks longish . The palm is appreciably broader at the bottom than below the fingers . The passionate character is believing, powerful, active, inspired . It proceeds by a feeling for things and produced by a natural abundance . Capacity for work . Keen, enthusiastic, absorbed worker . The practical hand has a family likeness to the preceding . It is square, but like the passionate hand it is fleshy, often fat . The palm does not appear less broad below the fingers than at the bottom . It is found in all sizes, and when too large it is coarse . The practical character is governed by material needs and by usefulness. It proceeds by reason, produces by interest, obeys calculations, advances with orderliness . It is foreseeing, disdains dreams, repulses illusions. Master of himself, he conforms to circumstances, and is a fighter . Work in proportion to his needs, considerable if necessary . Taste for good living and calm enjoyment. The vulgar hand, of which I could not show an example without hurting someone, is striking by its size and by a suggestion of malformation . It is generally hard and thick . It corresponds to simple tastes . The insigni fccant hand is too small or too large, very narrow, without resistance, without special features, very soft, with weak bones . The majority of hands do not belong to a definite type, but it is very rarely impossible to say with some certainty which type prevails . By way of example, here are two " famous " hands analysed by J. Leclercq :The hand of Father Didon :-The more hands I see, the more it seems to me that they modify my opinions of characters in the sense of greater truth. I was inclined to believe, some years ago, that Father Didon was a man entirely passionate, vehement, uncontrollable . What a mistake ! He is a brilliant man with a flash of passion . At least that is the view which his hand gave me of him the day when I was allowed to take a photograph of it. His hand is too small to be a passionate hand, and it is also too pretty.. Its relief is prominent and without hardness . The somewhat strong fingers and the prominent places of Venus, Mars and the Moon are its passionate parts . The little finger is independent, and the thumb, without being long, has power. The will is powerful, without however being so to excess . The fingers are round, almost square-order. Therefore, if I am to believe this hand, Father Didon adds to his freedom of manner, a greater wish to please than to strike, a quick

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and assimilable mind, an improvised judgment, a clear intellect and great charm . Add to these gifts colour and intensity . Self-confidence, indestructible, also belongs to him . Brilliant men, when they have some degree of passion and are very independent, are not protected, but rather protectors . In the true passionate character there is always some amount of confusion, of obscurity, but the feelings are deep and the beliefs more solid . The thought of the passionate is slow, it has fetters to break through and roads to force . The thought is strongly bound to the organism and frees itself with difficulty . In the brilliant type it is like a bubble of air which rises rapidly from the depth of the water to the surface . It is like a strange element, coming from outside, which rapidly finds its way out again . I do not think that the true passionate has ever been an orator . The latter has too much presence of mind, he does not know disturbance . A flash of passion is enough for him . This is the case with Father Didon. The hand of Mounet-Sully .-The palm is small in comparison with the fingers . Further, this hand, which has less character than the others, is prettier . Yet it is truly a passionate hand, but with something, some shade, some trace of brilliancy . Relief prominent, especially around Venus . Fingers strong, flesh fairly firm . Little finger strong and thumb thick . The ring finger is predominant rather than the first finger. Knowing that this is the hand of an actor, it is possible to say that we are not dealing here with a supple actor, but one who is vehement, playing with his personal feelings, compelled to work hard in order to free his consciousness from a ground in which emotion at first labours confusedly, who does not assimilate easily, who can hardly avail himself of the assistance of others . A general prejudice is responsible for the belief that the first condition of a remarkable talent is facility . This is an error, for it is not so in the case of basic, personal talents, who depend on themselves for everything. We give now, concerning the classification of the types of hands, an entirely new suggestion of G . Muchery 1 which is very interesting because it leads us back to planetary typology. There are three types of individuals, says this young and already famous chiromancer, the Intellectual, the Passionate and the Material . The Intellectual derives from Saturn (pride), the Sun (envy) and Mercury (avarice) . I

Death, Illnesses, Intellect, Heredity, a .s shown by the imprint of the hand (published by

Astrale, illustrated, 2 volumes, one containing plates) .

CHIROMANCY 161 The Passionate derives from Mars who gives him bad temper, coming from the heart and not the brain . The Material derives from Jupiter (greediness), Venus (voluptuousness), the Moon (laziness), Earth (materialism) . (It is obvious that these words with apparently bad meaning must be taken in a very broad sense) . The long conical hand is solar . The short conical hand is lunar . The long round hand is jupiterian . The short round hand is venusian . The long square hand is martian . The short square hand is earthy . The long spatulate hand is saturnian . The short spatulate hand is mercurian . But pure types do not exist . And besides we are all solar and earthy : the Sun and the Earth are there solely in order to add spirituality or materialism to the other influences . The type Earth is in reality only a material combination of Mars and Jupiter. The type Sun in the same way is but a combination of Saturn and Mercury with a touch of Venus . The Sun gives qualities and defects proceeding from the soul . The Earth gives qualities and defects proceeding from materialism . Saturn and Mercury give qualities and defects proceeding from the brain. Mars gives qualities and defects proceeding from the heart . Jupiter, Venus and the Moon give qualities and defects proceeding from the body. From the point of view of colour :Generally the Intellectual is yellow, the Passionate red, the Materialist white . From which we have the following combinations :Colour dark yellow-Saturn.

„ „

„

„ „

light yellow-Mercury . white-blue-the Moon . white-yellow-Venus . white-red-Jupiter.

red-Mars . This typology applies to Physiognomony, including Chiromaney . On comparing with this the theories of Jagot, Gastin, etc ., we find in fact the same data originally stated by each . On the other hand Mr . Muchery in the book already mentioned states an astro-chiromantic theory which is extraordinarily interesting and to which we refer the reader.

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IV The Palm Apart from the question of lines, we must not neglect the palm, which gives information as to the instincts . In animals the bones of the palm, as a matter of fact, constitute so to speak the whole of the hand ; hence in man predominance of the palm over the fingers indicates a preponderance of animalism . The fingers by their delicacy are the instruments of the soul, the palm is merely the seat of the material, sanguine life . This is seen at once in a sick person in whom it becomes burning as the result of fever . Here the pacinic corpuscles are collected . A well-coloured, soft, tepid, moist palm indicates youth, good health, sensitiveness. Dry, thin, it shows roughness of character. Over 98.6° the heat is excessive, and (apart from a known illness) this is a sign of weakness of the organism, of bad action of the lungs . Its warmth is also in relation with the blood . The fact that it is cold is however not a proof of the absence of passion . Cold hand, warm heart, says the proverb . And this is not always true either. The line of heart alone gives information as to this. Moist to excess, to some extent perspiring, it denotes a great lymphatic, and also sensuality . If fleshy, it shows a taste for material pleasures . If thin, only the pleasures of the soul are enjoyed . If massive, large, thick and hard with short fingers, it is on the borders of animalism . If simply firm and solid, it is a sign of activity, vigour, vitality . A hard hand is proof of endurance . A soft hand belongs to a temperament of the same kind. A hollow palm foretells lack of courage, even serious illness . A broad palm belongs to the analytical, a long palm to the synthetical, a medium palm to the synoptical, a thin palm to the weak, a palm bare (or almost) of lines to the fatalist, a flat palm without mounts to the neutral, an " agitated " palm, that is to say full of lines, to the passionate of all kinds. V The Fingers The palm is the index to the vital forces . The fingers indicate the intellectual powers . Each of them has its general meaning. Each of them is moreover divided into three joints, the unions of which are called knots. The first joint (that of the nail) gives information as to the spiritual abilities, the second (middle) as to the intellectual abilities, the third (which is connected with the palm) as to the instincts .

CHIROMANCY 163 What a fine opportunity this gave to Occultism, and the three parts of the body-the head for mentality, the chest for emotion (sensitiveness), the body for vegetation (nourishment) . We have studied the general shape of the fingers divided into pointed, conical, square, spatulate . Let us now examine each of them more in detail, and for the sake of speed, in the form of tables . 1 . THE THUMB

WS,

DESTINY IDEA L

It is the master finger, said Montaigne. It is the thickest, the leader of the file of the others, and soaaalLlrr can be placed opposite to them . It e~ INTEL~ECr sums up our vital force, our will. The y~ Ancients looked upon it as the very t,t A N symbol of man . Cowards had it cut 1 f off . In Sparm, the teachers as a y ;,wlr~? punishment bit the thumbs of their o ;SATU ;S;; r lazy pupils . In the Circus it was with ,~P poi the thumb, turned up or down, that the Emperor condemned or spared the ACTIVE h1AtcS vanquished . The thumb is man, FlGtir ~° VENUS ; wrote d'Arpentigny . Idiots have a short thumb without any corpuscles MOON a OOD~ ; at all, as has been demonstrated by Dupuytren . The new-born baby, as °o z yet without will-power, holds its thumb P00 t~ hidden in its closed hand ; the epileptic, who has lost his will-power, does the same, as also the patient who is grievously ill, the paralytic, the dying. THE FINOEES AND THE MOUNTS The joints of the thumb represent OF THE HAND. the first energy, the second logic, the third affection . We may therefore draw up the following table :MYSnLLEAN

W

aW

Q

may`' A

LOVE -T,ifE (AC'IVE

t`

First joint too long-pride, obstinacy . First joint long and strong-strong will-power . First joint short-indecision, self-distrust, weakness (unless it is broad) . First joint very short-passivity. First joint broad, strong, swollen-stubbornness (for instance Proudhon) . First joint ball-shaped-pigheadedness, even brutishness . First joint pointed-poetic sensitiveness (Victor Hugo) . First joint conical or round-varied but slight abilities. First joint square-practical and reasoned will-power. First joint spatulate-impulsive will-power .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Second joint long and strong-justice, clarity, logic. Second joint depressed or short=lack of judgment. Third joint (root of the thumb-see Mount of Venus) . But it is not enough to consider the joints by themselves . Their relations amongst each other are also of value . For instance :The two first joints equal-good balance (F . de Lesseps) . First thick and long, second short-energy without logic. First short, second long-more logic than will-power .

164

The debauched and prostitutes often have the root of the thumb developed and the remaining two joints short . According to d'Arpentigny :Thumb short-more feelings than ideas ; more heart than reason and energy . Thumb long-the head predominates, will-power, personality, firmness, perseverance . Thumb very long-dominating will-power of the leaders, the ambitious, the arrivists . 1 Thumb thin-organic weakness . Thumb narrow-guile and subtlety . Thumb thick-solid temperament. Distrust the thumb which is bent back (cowardice) . Choose your servants among the short thumbs. A thumb not very loose indicates frankness and disdain of prejudices . Desbarolles claims that he has several times seen the sign of eroticism in a hand where the thumb, in the middle of the palm, may take a kind of phallic shape (as in the case of the murderer Castex, etc) . Avoid persons who have the habit of enclosing their thumb in their hand, and thus suppress their own will-power . 2. THE FIRST FINGER It is the finger which points, orders, threatens, decides, attacks . It is the finger of Jupiter. Pointed-contradicts its role . Tendency to contemplation leanings to art . Conical-it is said that in this case it predisposes to reading and gentle simplicity . Square-bourgeois, orderly, regular leanings . Spatulate (rare)-exaggerated mysticism . Straight, upright-love of independence and fighting (the Irish patriot Maud Gonne) .

Short-tempered ambition (unless it is hard, thick, spatulate) . ' Many great men had large thumbs-Descartes, Newton, Galileo, Leibnitz,

Danton, Luther, Corot. Voltaire had enormous thumbs . Montaigne, La Fontaine had the nail joint of the thumb rather short, because they were ruled by doubt or by a naivete which formed the charm of their genius.

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As in the thumb, let us rapidly study the joints :First, long-intuition, religiousness . First, short-scepticism, unbelief (especially if it is square) . First, fleshy-sensual pleasures . First, dry--stern religion. First, broad, with nail bent back-phthisis and scrofula (medical observation) . Second, long-ambition determined to succeed. Second, short-efforts without success . Second, dry-ambition, love of glory . Third, long, strong-love of domination. Third, short-retirement . Third, dry-disdain of the joys of life, asceticism .

8. THE MIDDLE FINGER

The finger of the centre . The axis of life. Besides derives from the Mount of Saturn.

Represents destiny .

Pointed-loses its saturnian character . Intuition . Study of great problems easy . Square-rigour, intolerance, discipline . Spatulate, flat topped, swollen-sombre sadness, taste for profound studies love of the soil and of mines . Long-gloomy pride, doubt of self, fatalism . Thick-philosophical materialism . Nail joint long, broad-prudence, morbidness . Nail joint short-gentle resignation . Nail joint thin, dry-scepticism and funereal simplicity . Second joint long-love of agriculture, and, with knot, of occultism . Second joint short-uselessness of all experience of life . Third long-avarice, love of mortification . Short-well thought out economy.

4 . THE RING FINGER

Finger of the sun, of the ring In sympathy with the heart . Finger of art and the ideal . Pointed-fortunate aesthetic leanings . Conical-more disposed to commerce . Square-love of riches, of artistic truth found in reason . Spatulate-art applied to movement (painting of battles, military marches, the dance, the theatre) . Short-indifference to glory, and if very short, low instincts . Long-love of show, of spending, of fame . Knotty-reasoned love of beauty . Badly shaped-shameful celebrity (of criminals) .

166

THE OCCULT SCIENCES First joint long-noble love of art, of intellectual asceticism (less noble if it is short) . First joint fleshy-definite and sensual seeking after beauty . First joint dry-spiritual seeking after beauty . Second long-reason in art, talent, originality . Second short-impossibility of success (the failures) . Second fleshy-realistic art. Second dry-idealistic art . Third-long in proportion to the probability of success .

5 . THE LITTLE FINGER The chattering finger. The mercurian finger of skill, of intuition, of eloquence, of nous . Pointed or conical-natural eloquence, perspicacity. Square or spatulate-practical and reasoned science, physical skill. Short-quick assimilation . Long-reflection, knowledge of life, perfectibility . Knotty-pronounced commercial abilities . Badly shaped bad luck, lack of skill . Folded inward-sign of arthriticism (according to Professor Landouzy) . First joint long-taste for study . First joint short-mental laziness . Second-short or long according to cleverness in speculation. Third-long or short according to guile or simplicity .

Sometimes the little finger has, or seems to have, only two joints . If the nail joint is the longer-lack of guile and intellectual qualities . If it is the shorter-the practical sense dominates the aesthetic sense . VI The Knots The knots are the prominant articulations which connect the joints. The knot called philosophical binds the nail joint to the second . The knot called material binds the second joint to the third . Smooth fingers may become knotty . The contrary never occurs . Exaggerated knots denote excess, hence disorder of the faculties . The philosophic knot is the index of the need to know, to compare, to discuss, sometimes to deprecate others, to doubt everything . Few women have it . Desbarolles says that it is often seen among Parisians, as well as the square finger and the smooth finger .

CHIROMANCY 167 The knot of material order denotes the practical qualities, the love of order, of well-being, of wealth . It is useful for commercial men, business men, calculators . If these two kinds of knot exist, they spoil the beauty of the hand, but are a benefit to the possessor . Knots are useful to pointed or spatulate hands . They give reflection and patience . VII

The Handshake

According to the Daguesah, this also gives information . been possible to draw up the following little table as to this Ordinary with good-nature :-Superficial or cunning men.

It has

Short :-Men avaricious or afraid of emotion . Dragging :-The simple formality of the indifferent. Brutal :-That of a bully or a rude man . Broad and frank :-Of a friend, a good-hearted man. Heavy :-Of the indolent to whom all movement is a task. From the tips of the fingers :-Of the disdainful (insolent gesture). Caressing and lasting :-Of a voluptuary . Caressing with pressure :-Carnal desire . VIII

The Mounts

However much the " scientific chirologists " disclaim their interest in Astrology, they are compelled to admit that the protuberances at the roots of the fingers and at the percussion (the outer part of the hand opposite to the thumb which is used when banging with the fist) are the synthesis of the abilities and instincts given to each of these fingers . At these points there are heaps of pacinic corpuscles which are as it were the condensers of the nerves of the hand, reservoirs of magnetic electricity, of rising sap . Perhaps it is not foolish to think that the astral sign-manual is there, and explains, together with the names which the scientifics have had to preserve, the corresponding planetary influence . However this may be, here is the list and the place 1 of these protuberances :At the root of the thumb :-The mount of Venus . At the root of the first finger :-The mount of Jupiter .

See p . 163 : the drawing of the fingers and the mounts of the hand .

168

THE OCCULT SCIENCES At the root of the middle finger :-The mount of Saturn . At the root of the ring finger :-The mount of the Sun . At the root of the little finger :-The mount of Mercury . Below the mount of Mercury :-The mount of Mars . Below the mount of Mars :-The mount of the Moon . Between these seven mounts, the remaining space is called the Plain of Mars . Pre-eminent mounts always denote an abundance, even a plethora of fluid . When flat, they denote a relative absence of power, of sap, of passion . When hollow, they show the contrary of the abilities indicated . Lines on the mounts indicate increased nervous power . One mount larger than all the others shows the dominant influence on the life. If it is distinguished beyond all others, this excess is probably rather fatal, a real tyranny exercised over the person . Let us now consider each of these little mounts, so remarkable and so expressive. 1 . MOUNT OF JUPITER

Below the first finger, and like it, it refers to ambition, to dominance, to honours . Well proportioned, it gives the jupiterian qualities of reward well earned, of the joy of living, of normal recompense . It foretells happy marriages, loving unions . In excess :-Pride, the desire to shine, to command, exaltation, superstition . Depressed :--Lack of dignity, common leanings . Leaning towards the mount of Saturn :-Religious aspirations . If it absorbs the latter :-Success at any price . If there are to be seen :Straight upward lines :-Good prospect of success . Cross lines :-Domestic sorrows (Victor Hugo had this fatidic sign ; his terrible losses are well known) . Dots :-Position in danger, disappointed ambition. A bar :-Delayed opportunities . A triangle :-Aptitude for diplomatic sciences . A cross :-Happy omen of love. A star :-The best of all signs . Complete satisfaction . This sign never lies (Rem). 2. MOUNT OF SATURN Below the middle finger and its symbol of destiny . Plain, full, smooth-quiet life :-Possible success if other unlucky signs are absent .

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Pre-eminent (rare) :-Serious, bitter, splenetic character . Leaning towards Jupiter :-Ambition is victorious over science. Bad reputation . Leaning towards the Sun :-Artistic tastes, but leaning towards melancholy. One or more dots on it :-Fatality, unhappiness . A triangle :-Aptitude to mystical or occult sciences . A cross :-Fatal mysticism . A star :-Threat of serious illness, paralysis, painful death, murder .

3. MOUNT OF THE SUN Below the ring finger-glory, wealth, artistic leanings . Therefore if normal it is a good sign . If excessive, it draws beyond these noble qualities to their opposite defects . Depressed it cancels these tendencies . Slight and plain :-Quiet life, without fame . Ascending lines :-Are as usual signs of good prospects . Disordered lines :-Exuberance, presumption, lightheartedness . Cross lines :-Struggles, obstacles, changes . A star :-Possibly dangerous successes (e.g. General Boulanger) . A bar :-Vanity, false glory, lack of power, hindrances . A triangle :-Great artistic aptitudes . A small island at the bottom and on the line of the Sun :-Success, perhaps as the result of adultery. Holes or pits :-Diseases of the kidneys .

4. MOUNT OF MERCURY Below the little finger . Intelligence, abilities, eloquence, medicine, commerce . Normal :-Possibility of success in the Mercurian branches of activity. Abnormal :-Theft, cunning, lies, bankruptcy, discredit, pretentious ignorance. Depressed or absent :-None of the abilities resulting from the mount . Swollen, leaning towards the percussion :-Extreme cunning, greed for gain. Leaning towards the Sun :-Union of art to eloquence and to science.

It has been observed that people with leanings towards medical or natural sciences, the wives, daughters or mistresses of doctors, nurses, hospital sisters, etc ., have on Mercury rising lines . If at the same time the mount of the Moon is strongly developed they take care of themselves and drug much . They are the type of the imaginary patient . Unions, marriages, widowhoods, children, are written on the percussion of the mount of Mercury. Cross or bar on this mount :-Kleptomania (leaning to theft) . Triangle :-Diplomatic or political abilities .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES 5 . MOUNT OF MARS

It represents struggle, resistance . Normal it gives courage, calm, self-restraint . Even its excess is favourable, especially if the thumb is large (will-power). Big and plain it indicates firmness, tenacity . Absent or flat, the contrary-flabby, cowardly beings without character . United with the Moon in one single swelling, it betokens resigned heedlessness . On Mars lines are a bad sign ; they make violent, foretell bronchitis, laryngitis. A star threatens a serious wound (many had it who died in the war). A bar means possible violent death . A triangle-military science . The plain of Mars often contains the signs of the struggles of life . Smooth, without wrinkles, it means peace . Hollow, it means nonresistance . With many lines, it indicates constant fighting . But the fighting often comes from the Martian himself ; a cross on the plain shows him violent and quarrelsome . If in addition the head line is short, then all the wild passions are let loose . A triangle there promises military glory . A large cross united to a Venus line leads to the date of a catastrophe ; as witness the Empress Eugenie who with this sign bore the prediction of the Franco-German war for about her fortyfifth year ; in it she lost her crown and soon after her husband .

6. MOUNT OF THE MOON

If normal it gives, according to Desbarolles, a gentle melancholy and poetic imagination, love of dreaming and of silence, of harmony and mystery. But if exaggerated, the caprices of the Madwoman of the House, mobility, sadness, fanaticism, vapours and megrims . If absent or depressed, no sense of beauty, of enthusiasm, of illusion, but a cold, dry, hard character . If thin and lined, it betokens lascivious curiosity . Striated, it is a sign of madness, of irritation, of effervescence, of the dread of chirnaeras, of the love of the odd . These troubles come from the heart if that line is predominant, from pride with a strong jupiterian mount, from business with a prominent Mercury, from love if Venus is mistress. Lunar lines incline to forebodings, to premonitory dreams, to hallucinations . Together with large eyes and a good head line, good memory and aptness for languages are foretold . A star on the Moon mount foretells a danger on the water, and poor Lantelme who died drowned, had it, very strongly marked on a line of travel on the percussion of the hand . An island on the mount makes the somnambulist, the seer, gives the divining sense (e.g., the younger Dumas) . A triangle means common sense, intuition, maritime science ; a bar sorrow, restlessness, exaltation, in the woman shamelessness . On the percussion

CHIROMANCY 171 are found imagination (more or less numerous small lines) and journeys (horizontal lines going towards the back of the hand) . 7. MOUNT OF VENUS

It is the root of the thumb, the largest of the mounts of the hand . The line of life surrounds it. It is the seat not so much of love as of vital essence, the movements of the soul, affectibility, attractions towards joy and voluptuousness . Nevertheless if sentimental love is especially written on the heart line, it is on the mount of Venus that sensual love is inscribed . If therefore it is harmonious, normally striated, the pleasures of the senses will attract normally, and also the intellectual pleasures, music, the dance, beauty, luxury . If it is weak and smooth-small attraction to lust . On the contrary the latter is victorious together with its unhappy train on an exaggerated lined mount, especially if thick and hard. The true libertine, says Desbarolles, is shewn by the manifold lines which are accentuated by a ring of Venus (see below) . Most of the gallant women have this, together with a short thumb (lack of willpower) . But a curious thing is that persons with the same sign, if they have a pointed first finger, may also incline towards mysticism, in their troubled need to love something-the flesh or a God .Y Sometimes we see on the mount of Venus dots, signs of accidents ; a triangle, sign of base calculation in love ; a bar, sign of lasciviousness, of sexual perversion ; a cross, sign of a sole and unhappy love (unless a further cross, on Jupiter, transforms this unhappiness into happiness) ; a star, possible sign of unhappiness in love (if the star is connected with the head line, divorce or separation) . It is said that four equidistant lines going from the root of the thumb to the mount of Venus denote inheritances at a ripe age (Rem) ; that if these lines are placed towards the end of the life line it means that the legacy will come in youth ; that if there are only two or three it means that the legacy will not be so considerable ; finally that if these lines cross each other at the end, it means a lawsuit on this matter . It is said that several lines crossing on the top of the mount of Venus towards the jointure of the thumb mean fall from a horse, from a vehicle, or accident in the mountains . It is said that the root of the thumb cut in several places foretells death by drowning or by strangling, that one or two thick lines crossing the thumb threaten murder or beheading . But let us leave these funereal presages and come to more cheerful ones -numerous and rather shallow small lines tell of little love affairs ; not very numerous thick lines proclaim the serious passions ; lines going from the root of the thumb to the life . line and meeting on the mount reveal a double love .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES IX The Lines of the Hand

These are the great revealers, the pythonesses who are most easily questioned and who reply most obediently . They are the varying signs of vitality, of energy, of sensitiveness, which the astral influence signed from the day of birth . Their decrees modify those of the mounts and the fingers . They reflect the will of the brain, its impulses, its starts, its weaknesses, even its organic blemishes, and the whole of the past, present and future existence of the subject . They in some way automatically record our deeds, and even forewarn us, they tell us mutely of our fate. 1 The lines of the hand, at least the chief ones, are formed in the maternal womb, at the same time as the features of the face. " God placed signs in the hands of men," say the Sacred Books, " so that all might know their fate ." These lines change during the course of life and disappear at death . The diversity of temperaments and of vitalities causes their variety . There are no two persons with the same lines . The lines are the more numerous according to whether we have a complicated or sensitive soul. The working classes have much more simple lines than men and women of the world or the elect . They change, we repeat, under the - F'=~ - influence of our occupations and preTHE LINES OF THE HAND . occupations. Each hand corresponds to the opposite brain, the right to the left hemisphere, the left to the right hemisphere, as is proved by hemiplegia . " Troubles, sorrows, the great moral shocks, reverses of fortunes, illnesses, accidents,

leave traces on the face, on the physiognomy, engrave lines on it which even change its features and its expression. These events of a life, these revealing reflexes, inscribe themselves by corresponding stigmata on the hand as on the face . It is the same with all important events, with accidents to beware of, with morbid germs which must open and blossom at a more or less early time . The date of the event and that of the blossoming inscribe themselves also in the hand . Violent impressions, even if received in childhood, produce and leave their stigmata and their trace in the hand ." (Henri Rem, op . cit . p . 158) .

CHIROMANCY 173 The number of the lines of the hand is considerable . They may be divided into :Three principal ones (lines of life, head, heart) . Four secondary ones (lines of fate, sun, health, intuition) . Eleven ancillary ones, of which the rings round the wrist, the ring of Venus etc ., are described later. Let us give a few general remarks on the lines . The principal and secondary lines are sometimes accompanied by a sister-line which mends their bad effect in case of breaks, but increases this bad effect if the line itself is not good, or doubles the good effect if both are good. The colours of the lines must be considered . Pale or light yellow they betoken lymphaticism, therefore calm . Red they are a sign of sanguineness, therefore of power, of passion, even of violence . Yellow they are a sign of bile, hence of pessimism, of sadness . Livid, dark blue, they show materialism, disorder, grudge, especially if the fingers corroborate these defects . Good lines, that is to say those which are complete, clear, fairly broad and deep, are a sign of good character, of normal fate ; their predictions in this case are very sure . Imperfect lines, confused, twisted, denote a bizarre being, lacunae, dangers . If too strong, this sign is excessive. Very deep they intensify it . Fine and numerous they mean nervousness, activity . Broad, not very deep, not very numerous, they show calm and power of resistance . Broken, cut, they mean stops, changes, dangers, restless fate . Regular and numerous they indicate a noble life, intellect, sensitiveness . These lines and signs are not the same in the two hands which supplement each other . If the two hands are appreciably alike, their predictions are the surer. If not, they must both be looked at, remembering that the right hand is that of activity, the left that of passivity . The hand which has the greater number of lines is the dominant of the subject, that is to say shows whether he is more active or passive . The man of feeling will have the left hand more lined . He will have the luck of chance . He whose right hand is more lined has only himself to rely upon . Apart from the lines, the hand contains various signs, stars, crosses, triangles, bars, isles, chains, etc ., which we shall look at in the following pages .

The Line of Life.-It is the one which runs like a rivulet of sap round the vast promontory of Venus . It is the most important, the one which indicates the amount of vital energy, the probabilities of long life, of serious accidents . We must therefore study it carefully .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The writer of our introduction has .already observed that, according to the opinion of Fraya, it would be better to name it the line of vitality, for its length is not, as the man in the street (or the sibyl of low degree) generally claims, necessarily in accord with .the number of years we have to live . If it were, it would be criminal or at least dangerous to tell the client exactly his early or distant end, thus implanting in him a fixed idea which would be capable, as the fatal hour approached, of putting him into such a state of moral and physical inferiority that he would run the risk of himself advancing the hour of his death . In the same way the client, by taking the necessary care of his health, is able to strengthen it and thus himself to lengthen this line ~; which, we repeat, is but a sign of { vitality . On the other hand, and this is remarkable, a line of life will never shrink from the length which j it shows at the moment of examination .inato If for instance it indicates that a person aged 50 may possibly live to 70, it may be that he will live even to 80, but he will not live only to 60 except in the case of a sudden accident, which anyhow would also be written in the palm . However this may be it is possible roughly to say that when the line of life reaches to the line round the wrist, there is the possibility that it will mark at least 80 years on the dial of life . By dividing the line from its start below the mount of Jupiter, up to this point either by ten or by seven years, 1 we obtain a scale of the stages of life as follows From birth to 7 years, which is the age of reason (childhood) . Instincts, probable character . From 7 to 14 years, which is the " difficult age " (adolescence) . Natural aptitudes . 174

1 The traditionalists made this division by ten . The " renovators " of chiromancy make it by 7, basing them3elves on the doctrine of the physiologist Flourens who teaches that the total renewal of the cells of the body takes place in 7 years . We have adopted this latter method which admits of a more rational division of the " ages " of life. And who does not see that here we adopt once more the occult law of the septenary Y

CHIROMANCY 175 From 14 to 21 years (that is to say the time of puberty), Illusions and hopes . From 21 to 28 years, the period of sensual pleasures (youth) . Physical love, enthusiasms, inconstancy . From 28 to 85 years (manly age). Physical and intellectual pleasures . The best time of life . From 85 to 42 years (middle age). Consistent desire for wealth or honour. From 42 to 49 years (ripe age) . Wisdom, reason, culminating point of life . From 49 to 56 years (critical age) . Prudence, foresight, care of the health so as to " round the cape ." From 56 to 63 years (autumn) . Reflections and first regrets . From 63 to 70 years (first old age) . Infirmities, pains, trouble or quiet in the home . From 70 to 77 years (second old age) . The fingers become knotty, the heart also . The character is apt to become bitter . From 77 to 84 or 91 years (senility) . Distrust, the grave yawns . After the age of 91, if man still lives, he becomes again a child, indifferent, vegetating, inert, ghostly . In order to classify events according to their dates, the scale of the stages of life will therefore be consulted . We now give a table of the chief peculiarities of the line of life :Good line, long, pink, free of signs, or breaks-good and long life . Pale and not very broad-delicate health, lymphaticism . Pale and broad-little strength in much sap. Very broad-bad health (valetudinarianism). Red-strong health ; red and broad-violence ; livid and very broad-spitefulness, brutality . Bluish-venusian character . Dark blue-martian character (bad temper). Long-possibility of long life . Long and thin-but little sap, timidity, nerves . Like a chain, broken-sickly and troubled life . Broken at birth-illness in early childhood.' Often interruptedmany illnesses . Tortuous-unequal temper . Badly drawn-delicate but resisting health . Short-risk of short life (especially if the two hands are alike) . In two pieces-mortal danger (unless in the other hand the line is not cut) . Double-great vital power. In women the sign of passion without 1 Broken in one hand, continuous in the other indicates the certainty of an illness which has placed or will place in danger of death (Desbarolles) .

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restraint (e.g. Clara Ward, who married a prince, then the Gipsy Rigo, then the undistinguished Italian Ricciardo, and lower still a man named Cassalota). Victor Hugo had the rarity of a triple life line . His enormous vitality is well known. Branches at the start-promise of wealth . At the end, towards Venus-loss of fortune ; towards the ring round the wrist-misery . Branches thrown out from the corner of the life line towards the head line-success. Towards the Moon-rheumatism . Towards the plain of Mars-full success but after trials . Towards Saturn or the Sunfame, wealth. A line at the start going towards Jupiter-ambition, success .' Life line forked towards the bottom-weakening on the turn of life. Rest necessary when the time comes (Lamartine had this mark, to which we owe a fine melancholy page written by Arsene Houssaye) . Clean lines proceeding from the life line-success due to personal merit. Straight line going to Venus or from the life line to Mercurysuccesses in business or in love . Lines crossing the life, head or heart line-changes of position, of fortune or of fate . Lines going from Venus to the plain of Mars, called lines of sorrow -illness, bad luck .

The Line of Head.-It is found in the middle of the hand, starts between the thumb and the first finger, forms with the life line " the supreme angle," and traversing the plain of Mars, ends by the percussion . It is the line of mental activity . On it are inscribed wounds of the head, neurasthenia, madness, all the mental diseases, and also qualities of initiative and reasoning. Its absence in a hand is a sign of death by accident. In order to ascertain the approximate date of the events foretold by it, it is divided by perpendicular lines drawn on to it from the middle of each finger, from the first finger to the little finger, which gives five divisions, from 0 to 10 years, from 10 to 15, from 15 to 25, from 25 to 50 and from 50 to 75 . If clear, long, straight, slightly sloping, it indicates balance of faculties and firm will-power . If very long, going to the percussion, straight, dry, it means excessive reasoning, therefore some egoism, positivism, calculation in everything, arrivism, self-restraint . It was like this in Corot's hand, and no doubt in Fontenelle's to whom Tensin said that he had a brain instead of a heart. If in addition such a line curves towards Mercury or sends a ' It sometimes comes up suddenly before a future success (Rem) .

CHIROMANCY 177 branch in that direction, it means that calculation turns to cunning, to a genius for affairs even somewhat unscrupulous . When it is forked and one branch goes towards the Moon, it indicates an aptitude to invent opportune lies (sophists, advocates, solicitors, and also actors who drop their own personality at will so as to represent their part, and women who are clever at getting out of difficulties) . If the line plainly slopes towards the mount of the Moon, it means a leaning towards imagination, towards poetry . If it is goes lower down, it means taste for simplicity, for occultism, for spiritualism . If double, the head line foretells probability of money in middle life . If it leaves the life line late, it is a sign of late development of the intellect . If it begins without touching the life line it indicates serious eye trouble in youth. If starting beneath the middle finger, the development of the intellect is considerably hindered . If short, the character is weak . Ending beneath the middle finger shews danger of death in youth . Stopping below the ring finger means in women coquetry, in men unfaithfulness, often a spoilt life . Cut near the start-wounds or disease of the lower `limbs, wounds to the head generally as the result of a fall . Cut in pieces-tendency to headaches, lack of memory or stupidity . If in two pieces-serious wound or madness . If the pieces cross each other under Saturn-severe accident (it is found in many criminals condemned to execution) . Will-power, courage are in proportion to its depth . If thin and feeble-lassitude, lymphaticism . Pale and broad it indicates mental inactivity ; red, energy ; too red, danger of apoplexy or epilepsy . and curved is a bad sign-a great misfortune threatens e. life. Tortuous it means liver trouble, spite, lies, inconstant will . Badly formed, confused, scattered-weakness of the brain, madness, illnesses . Inclined towards the life line-certain happiness . Near to the heart line-palpitations, asthma, suffocation . Rising and joining the heart line-the heart governs the head . But if a branch goes towards

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the heart line, it is on the contrary the head which governs the heart . A branch towards Jupiter and ending on a star means great success ; but without a star and rising towards the first finger, simple pride. • the• first• finger • to the percussion, The Line of Heart .-It runs from

at the base of the mounts . It is the voice of the joys and the sorrows of life, of emotion, of heart troubles, more eloquent in women and more explanatory in them than in men . Its oracles are supplemented by the study of the mount of Venus and by the little lines of passion of which we shall speak presently . The heart line is divided, like the head line, by straight lines drawn from the middle of the fingers starting with the little finger, but counting is in the reverse direction, 10 (years) being below the little finger, and 25, 50 and 75 below the others . A good heart line, without accidents, well coloured, straight, normally deep foretells a normal love, made up of serious affection, goodness, conjugal happiness, sane friendships, a well balanced soul. It is generally like this in French women of all social classes ; it is found in the heroines of the Revolution :-Madame Tallien, Madame de Mouchy, Madame Roland, Mlle . de Sombreuil, Madame de Rosambo who on meeting the latter when going to the scaffold said to her : " You have had the happiness of saving your father, I have the consolation of dying with mine ." According to Rem it is found in true and sympathetic orators, earnest lawyers, great preachers, great dramatic artists . A very large line, especially with branches at the two ends, shows an excess of sensitiveness . Those of Lamartine, of Sully-Prudhomme, were of this kind. Pale, it denotes more calm, and red, an ardour which sometimes turns to violence . Slight, thin, fine, it means dryness . Too hollow, cruelty (parricides) . Double, great expansiveness (Dejazet) . A large line, if the mount of the Moon is striated, betokens jealousy, which is also shewn by the ring of Venus . If beginning in the first finger-wealth ; if under Jupiter, idealism ; in both cases honours and riches are possible . On the contrary mis-

CHIROMANCY 179 fortune and loss of property is foretold if the line starts at the root of the first finger ; hard work and luck if it starts between the first and middle fingers ; troubled life if it begins under the middle finger ; poverty of heart and of mind if it starts under the ring finger. If stopping under the middle finger, danger of short life ; if under the ring finger, conceit ; if under the little finger, cleverness rather than sincere love . Sloping towards the head line-hypocrisy or domination of the heart by the head. Joining it under the middle finger, risk of violent death. According to Rem, if it slopes towards and joins the head line and the life line and forms a St . Andrew's cross on the mount of Jupiter it indicates a union or a marriage entailing suffering and loss of money . A confused chain-like heart line indicates moral prodigality of the heart, physically a tendency to palpitations . This is the case with those who are picturesquely called " artichoke hearts ." If tortuous at the ends-heart trouble . Cut or intersected by Forked, bad other lines-inconstancy . circulation . Throwing at the start a branch towards Jupiter-strong and tender passion ; three branches, wealth . Some authors place the line of Fate among the principal, others among the secondary lines . It does not matter . We will now deal with it, and with three other lines, those of the sun, of health and of intuition.

The Line of Fate .-Also called the line of luck, of fortune, of fatality, or saturnian . It is the one which starts from the ring round the wrist (or from the life line or from the plain or the mount of Mars or the mount of the Moon) and which ends at the middle finger . The Ancients called it the line of fate or of fortune, but gave to these words tneir etymological meaning-that which happens, that which comes . It must therefore not be translated in the sense that the line denotes "good luck" or wealth . In our opinion, which we offer to chiromancers, it must be considered as indicating the realisation or otherwise of the individual in accordance with his abilities . It can therefore be good

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in a peasant, a rich man, a poor man, a man of small position, a nobleman, a maidservant, a priest, etc ., if they have , " realised " their lives according to their respective abilities . It is a curious line, changeable even during the course of life, rich in combinations . Its direction towards one mount or the other denotes the tendency of the powers of the individual-here towards the arts, there towards position, elsewhere towards commerce . Those in whom it is absent or weak may possibly succeed, but they have only themselves to rely upon . In order to know the approximate dates of the events, it is divided like the others, by placing 30 (years) where it crosses the head line, and normally 15 at the end, by the mount of Saturn . If good in both hands it means assured success . If better at the beginning than at the end, hard times in old age . If irregular in a hand with many lines-excessive sensitiveness making success difficult . Accompanied by small lines-good omen, obstacles overcome . Made up of small lines-illnesses, indecision . Confused-changeable fate, capricious ; also if it is broken, cut, reconnecting at each instant . If it has ascending branches-destiny improves little by little (towards the sign of the mount attained) . Its beginnings are important . If at the ring round the wrist, and straight to the end-happy calm fate . If at the life line, happiness acquired by merit . At the mount of Mars-power of resistance to attacks . At the plain of Mars-difficulties, especially at the start, discouragement, black thoughts . At the mount of the Moon-good fortune by chance or by other people . Stopping at the head line : Rash act or brain trouble At the heart line-heart trouble or change of position owing to an affair of the heart . At the mount/of Saturn-happy old age . If forked, difficult old age . If cut on Saturn by cross lines-obstacles, misfortunes . Rising towards the middle finger-great destiny for good or for evil . Rising towards Jupiter-success . Very red, possibility of catastrophes . Lengthened across the lines of the wrist-tragic destiny .

The Line of Sun.-This line rises from various points of the hand, but most frequently from the ring round the wrist or the head or heart line towards the root of the ring finger where the mount of the Sun is, which it dents with a more or less pronounced groove . It shows the enthusiasm of the being (for the Sun means expansion) and it is very

CHIROMANCY 181 lucky . He who has it well marked may expect renown . It is in short the true line of luck. He in whom it is lacking may fear that he will never succeed . All chosen people or those who have arrived possess it . For the division of the ages we count 30 (from the bottom) up to the head line, 40 to the crossing with the heart line . The Sun line does not generally start before the head or the heart line, because it is towards the age of 30 that the future unfolds itself . Starting from the heart line, if the solar furrow runs beautifully towards the mount by the ring finger it indicates talent, success, nobility of soul (Sully-Prudhomme, Severine) . If from the head line-the will to arrive by means of the arts or literature (Gyp) . If from the intuition line-good qualities which are somewhat spoilt by excessive imagination . From the line of Saturn-success and intellectual fame (the elder Dumas, Gounod, Dejazet) . From the mount of Venus or the life line-brilliant omen (Meissonnier, Victor Hugo, Marcelin Berthelot) . From the mount of the Moon-success for poets, artists, comedians . From the plain of Mars-agitated fighting, success through struggle (Rodin, Rejane, Clemenceau) . From the mount of Mars, it excites to ambition, daring (Got, the younger Dumas, F . Labori, Sarah Bernhardt) . Doubled or tripled-great reputation (Lamartine, Aubert, Corot) . If the solar line ends at Mercury, love of money ; if on Saturnmissed vocation . Crossed by small lines-obstacles (the painter Diaz) . The Line of Intuition runs to the mount of Mercury, starting from the life, fate or sun line . Clean, long, regular, it means good health, good memory, eloquence, intuition . Its appearance as in all other lines indicates the intensity of these qualities . The Hepatic (or health) Line goes from the mount of Venus to the line of Life . H. Rem denies the tradition concerning it, declares that its traditional qualities are very doubtful, and says that further it is often mixed up with the mercurian line . Other lines and signs in the hand :The Ring of Venus.-Half circle surrounding the middle and ring fingers . The ancient chirologists called it a sign of violent passion, of lasciviousness . H. Rem believes in this sign only if it is double, triple, badly drawn, broken . Otherwise it is merely a sign of increased vitality, increased fortune . The Lascivious Line .-This line, sister of the intuition line, resembling the milky way, made of all kinds of little parallel lines, seems to betoken excessive ardour in love, voluptuousness .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Rings Round the Wrist.-These are small lines which form a kind of bracelet round the wrist. There are two or three, rarely more . It is said that each denotes 30 years of life . But certain reservations must be made on this subject . The data of the line of life are sufficient and more sure . Let us confine ourselves to the following notes :Badly marked, much interrupted-not very good health, long illnesses . Short-accidents which may prove fatal . Single-bad health and short life . But it may be that towards the age of twenty these lines become more numerous, deeper, longer . Therefore let us not make this prediction unless we know more . Quadrangle .-This is the rectangular space, also called the Table of the hand, situate between the heart and head lines . A regular spacious quadrangle indicates balance, loyalty, benevolence . If it is missing in one hand it is a bad sign . If it is narrow it betokens irresolution, lack of go, of spontaneity, and this omen is strengthened if there are many small lines in it . Great Triangle .-Formed by the head, heart and intuition lines in the inside of the hand . Well marked it indicates mental balance . The contrary, indicates opposite qualities . If narrow it points to narrow-mindedness . If it gets stronger during the course of life, it means that the latter improves. Small Triangle.-The meeting of the hepatic (or intuition) line with the heart and fate lines . Well formed it denotes a taste for the liberal professions. Archeologists and collectors have it strongly marked . 182

A fairly considerable number of small signs further occur in the graphic of the hands, and further interpret the lines and the mounts . They are as follows with their meanings according to their position :Stars.-Desbarolles says that they announce inescapable events deriving from the place they occupy . According to H. Rem the following list may be drawn up :A star on Jupiter-success, wealth ; on Saturn (always bad) paralysis, disastrous death ; on the Sun, wealth not bringing happiness, perils ; on Mercury, unscrupulousness ; on Mars, serious wound, death in war ; on the Moon, peril from water (shipwreck or otherwise) ; on Venus, probable disappointments ; in the quadrangle, good disposition ; on the head line, wound in the head or madness ; at the end of the head line-head wound or rash act ; on the life line, misfortunes ;

CHIROMANCY 183 on the Sun line-catastrophe if that line is broken ; on the ring of Venus, crime of passion, venereal disease . On the ring round the wrist-legacy . At the tip of the thumb, excessive gallantry . On the back of the thumb, voluptuousness . On the tip of the fingers-peril . Crosses .-Sign of minor fatalities (except on the mount of Mercury), especially if well shaped .

STARS AND CROSSES

Astride on the root of the first finger-happiness ; on Jupiterlove marriage ; on Saturn-mysticism ; on the Sun-missed fame ; on Mercury-tendency to theft ; on the lunar mount-danger on the water ; on the mount of Venus-single and fatal love ; in the quadrangle, below the middle finger-mysticism ; at the beginning of the life line-accident in childhood ; in the life line-unfortunate event ; in the middle of the head line-brain trouble ; on the heart line-accident ; on the Fate line-alteration of position ; on the solar line-stoppage of luck ; on Mercury-aptitude for science, especially occult science ;

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on the Sun-leaning towards religion (without mysticism) ; on the ring round the wrist-unexpected wealth. Dots .-Their colour is as important as their position . Dark-bad omen ; red-trouble with health ; white or pink-good sign ; red on the heart line-love troubles ; white on the same linesentimental lightheartedness ; on the line of fate-obstacles ; on the line of life-illnesses or wounds ; on the head line-wounds ; on the Sun-sorrows ; on Saturn-accident very soon ; on Mercury-business gone wrong ; on the nails-nerves . Chains.-They indicate a succession of obstacles on the lines-fetters . On the line of Life-broken health . On the line of Heart-slight and numerous passions . On the line of Fate-reverses . On the line of Fame-bad sign . On the little finger-confused imagination not very apt at disentangling itself. Branches.-Leading to the middle finger-effort needed . Leading to the little finger-practical tendencies . On the line of Fate-dangers . On the line of Heart-affection ideal (if rising) or low (if falling) . On the line of Life-health, success, wealth . Isles.-Two little curves touching at the ends-bad sign . On the line of Life-clandestine child . On the line of Heart-adultery . On the line of Fate-life ruined as the result of adultery . On the line of Fame-life ruined . At the base of the little finger-beware of theft and bankruptcy . Figures.-Approximate figure 5-serious and sad events . Form of 4 on the mount of Venus-marriage of inclination . Sign of Venus-(a little circle surmounted by a cross) great love shared. If the cross is below, this love is the source of sorrow . Sign of Mars (circle surmounted by an arrow)-strength . Love of fighting. Duels. On the line of Life-success due to courage or to decision . On the line of Heart-genesic strength . On the line of Fate-favourable sudden event . At the base of the little finger-success due to good policy . Crescents .-Inconstancy, removals . On the line of Fame-leanings towards music . On the ring finger-literary vocation .

CHIROMANCY 185 Bars.-At the top and close together on the mount of Mercury they indicate in doctors medical intuition (remark of Desbarolles) . Horizontal going from the Moon to the outer seam-travels . Forks .-These are two pointed branches departing from a principal line. Ascending-good omen . Descending towards the upper part of the hand-reverse in fortune and lack of success in current enterprises . Rails.-Their name shows to what these signs resemble . If placed on a line they hinder its effect . Suns.-Circles with rays., At the root of the little finger-success in science ; on the ring finger-prediction of fame ; in the hollow of the hand-victory over difficulties ; at the root of the thumb-gallant successes ; on the Moon-journeys . Squares.-Tokens of energy. If numerous-luck abroad. Small triangles .-If numerous-abilities . We want to draw attention again to the very remarkable work of G. Muchery on the signs, visible in the hand, of heredity, of illnesses and of death which the very learned organiser of the International Congresses of Psychology has observed during years of experiments on hundreds of hands of scholars, of artists, of patients, of madmen, of centenarians, etc . It is a medical chiromancy into which our scheme does not allow us to go in detail, but which is of the highest interest . We are convinced that in the very near future Medicine will take official note of it, for in the opinion of the author it is possible to discover in the hand very clear symptoms of all kinds of perturbations of the organism, such as poor circulation of the blood, albuminuria, cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, troubles of the stomach, the kidneys, the eyes, the legs, the throat, the bowels, gout, hysteria, premature impotence, rheumatism, paralysis, tuberculosis, etc . Also sudden and accidental death, tendency to suicide, madness, and so on . In the same book a very curious chapter deals with the signs of intellect, and an analysis is given of a great number of eminent people . X

Seeming Contradictions and Combinations It may happen that an analysis made with the help of the above details leads to contradictions of predictions . The reason for this will be that observation was defective . Further, certain combinations

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or junctions of the lines modify their individual significance . And besides no one has a character all of one piece . A man having a certain defect may at certain times show a reaction, a move towards the opposite direction . Let us take one by one the lines of which we have spoken . Line of Life .-Cleanly separated from the Head line, it denotes a light fantastic individual, not very sure in his dealings, but succeeding by his self-confidence . If it joins that line between the thumb and the first finger, it denotes on the other hand a well-balanced mind which does not give in to fancies . If the three lines (life, head and heart) join, beware of fancies . These people are not very much masters of themselves . They must beware of accidents and catastrophes . The line of Life interrupted by small lines indicates that the liver must be looked after. If the lines of Life, Heart and Head form a square well designed, it is a token of an equable character and a good constitution . If the mount of Venus extends as far as Jupiter, it is a sign of violent passions, and sometimes of sudden death. Line of Heart.-If mixed up with the Head line-tendency to a " thunderclap " in love . If the join is towards the middle of the palm-disappointments in love may cause violent actions . If the Heart line surrounds Mercury up to the folding of the handself-interest pursued in sentimental affairs-infidelity . Line of Heart descending towards the line of Head-leaning towards platonic love . Line of Heart ending in a curve towards the root of the first fingerexaggerated mysticism . Line of Heart traversing the whole hand cutting through the mounts -inconstant feelings . Line of Heart very near to the line of Head-hypocrisy . Line of Fate.-Very straight from the ring round the wrist to Saturn, touching the line of Life-existence without troubles, health and wealth. Mixed up with the line of Life-found in those who have risen through their own merit . Joined to the small line which traverses the mount of the Moonvariations of fortune due to variations of temperament . Joined to the line of the Sun-success in the arts. Starting obliquely from the mount of the Moon-fate upset by dreams.

187 CHIROMANCY Starting from the mount of Venus-love will be the great preoccupation of life . Ending in a cross towards the mount of the Sun-mental derangement through crashing of expectations . Ending before the mount of Saturn-melancholy due to lack of mental balance . Ring of Venus.-Joined to the Line of Heart-risk of stupid acts owing to base love. Touching the line of the Sun-propensity to voluptuousness . Line of the Sun.-Joined to the line of Mercury-abilities thwarted by excess of imagination . Ending at the line of Mercury-eloquence useful in good things . Directed towards Mars by crossing Mercury-low aestheticism . Directed towards the mount of the Moon-tendency towards mystic or baroque art . Mixed up with the lines of Life and of Mercury-sane, balanced and profitable art. Mounts of the Sun and of Mars mixed up-low art imposing itself by bluff . Line of Mercury .-Traversing the Head line-sure judgment. Traversing the Heart line-feeling dominating the practical side . Ending on the mount of the Moon-characteristic of inventors without the means for action . Ending on Mercury-practical intellect. Joining the life line-sign of preparations a long way ahead . Ending on the mount of the Sun-inventive imagination . The mounts of Mercury and of Mars joined-laborious and practical temperament . XI

Luck, Adultery and the Hand According to Papus i :A spatulate finger denotes luck in material enterprises . A square finger denotes luck in scientific enterprises . A pointed finger indicates luck in art and diplomacy. Fine lines under the little finger denote aptitude for great commercial affairs . A fork below the ring finger denotes the probability of becoming rich . A cross below the first finger (mount of Jupiterl-sign of luck in love . The Book of Luck . 3

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If you put your left hand flat on a sheet of white paper so as to see its colour properly, conclude as follows :A A A A

hand with frankly white ground-luck in business . hand of brown colour-luck in daring enterprises . hand of red colour -luck in politics . hand of yellowish colour-luck in art .

Mr . Georges Muchery on the other hand has written a most curious little book 1 from which we gather the following details which are but an application of chirological ideas to a given psychological case :1 . When the palm of the hand is more important than the fingers, the owner has more material tastes ; if it is less so, his tastes are more idealistic or intellectual . Therefore, if adultery is committed, according to the hands it will be either sensual or mental (betrayal of the heart rather than of the flesh) . 2. The characteristics described above according to the shape of the hands and the fingers, according to the mounts and the lines, adjust their indications, in the case of adultery, to the kind of adultery in question . For instance-distrust in love, says Mr . Muchery, those people in whose hand a line goes from the line of Life to the little finger, especially if the line of Life is tortuous ; you will be deceived all through your life by these people who will play at love whilst thinking only of their own interest . Study well the line of Heart, which denotes the nature and the strength of the affections . If confused and like a chain, it denotes numerous and inconstant love affairs . If connected with the Head line then love is governed by the brain, therefore less frank, less free than in the opposite case . Forks below the first finger and ending the line are a happy omen . 3 . Among the signs of the hand relating to adultery must be noticed :An isle in the line of Fate or (and sometimes in addition) in the line of the Sun .

A cross on the mount of Venus on the other hand usually denotes one love only. 4 . The lines of union (on the flat of the hand, by the little finger) denote by their number the number of free or legal unions in a life, and by their length the duration of such unions . Chains in these lines of union are a sign of infidelity . An isle means union with a relative, and sometimes even incest . Thus a line of union with an isle and joining the ring of Venus which was broken (sign of licentiousness) and, in addition, an isle in the line of Fate informed the author (to whom it was admitted) that 1

Conjugal HappineBs.

Adultery Unveiled to all by the Hand (Astrale, publisher) .

CHIROMANCY

189

the man in question, married to a widow, had as his mistress a daughter of the latter . 5. Taking the indications of the mounts into consideration, Mr . Muchery gives the following advice :Young ladies, choose a husband who has :A large thumb (sign of activity-he will always be able to earn your bread) . A single line of union . None of the signs of adultery . A hand a little thick (success) with long and smooth fingers (patience, preciseness) .

If you are sensual :-

A long and good line of Heart. A thick and firm mount of Venus . A simple ring of Venus. Coloured lines.

If you are sentimental rather than sensual :A A A A

long and somewhat soft hand . long and straight line of Head . straight and plain line of Heart . low and soft mount of Venus .

If you want to rule him

A small thumb. A short Head line . Smooth and square fingers . Signs of jealousy :-Ball shaped thumb . Heart line going from Mars between the first and middle fingers . Signs of kindness :-Heart line long, straight, without chain or breaks . Constancy is never found in a man who has at the same time :A chain-like Heart line . A ring of Venus . A small Head line.

Following up these general data, Mr . Muchery gives the prints of a certain number of types of hands of adulterers, from which we select the following :1 . Type of unfaithful hand :-Numerous lines . Ring of Venus well defined . Heart line too long. Mount of Venus too large and not high enough . First finger pointed (curiosity) . Isle of adultery on the line of Fate . 2 . Type of hand of adulterous and jealous woman :-Deep and strong lines . Thumb ball-shaped (changeable temper) . A line goes from Venus, divides, forms an isle and ends at the Head line :-this shows that the death of a person who was loved was followed by neurasthenia

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in the subject, and by a fresh love . Another line goes from the Life line, crosses the plain of Mars and ends at Mercury-towards the age of 30 a fresh liaison without giving up the first (isle in the Saturn line), hence adultery . 3. Type of hand of woman born to deceive men :-Head line forked (lies and cunning in getting out of all difficulties) . Mount of Venus high and broad (sensual passion) . Line of adultery giving rise to two others going towards Mercury and the Sun (practical use of her lovers) . 4 . Type of adultery without knowing it :-Short, broad, firm, material hand . Head line straight (frankness) . Mount of Venus lined (solid appetites). No line of adultery . This woman had a lover of whom she did not know that he was married . 5. Type of adulterous man. succeeding through women :-Sign of unhappy marriage-Heart line joining the Life line and forming a cross on Jupiter. Sign of the divorce which followed :-line starting from Venus, crossing the Life line and joining the Head line by a cross . Sign of a liaison which brought him money in the line of the Sun. Sign of licentiousness-double ring of Venus . XII A Specimen Print As a practical conclusion of this chapter we give here the photograph of a print of a hand made by Mr . Muchery who will himself in a short analysis tell us what he thinks of it :Hand signed by the Moon and Mars, hence hand of an active and imaginative type giving for this reason contradictions or rather a succession of selenian and martian impulses which may also at times be combined. This imagination of the subject will not be sterile dreaming, as Mars will always try to carry it into effect ; but actions are sometimes precipitate, whilst certain periods are calm, even taciturn and melancholy . The subject will have to pass through crises of pessimism, even neurasthenia, but there is the probability that his discouragements will not last long and will be followed by fresh flashes of effort and enthusiasm . By its shape the hand is artistic and sensual, denoting the taste for the beautiful and the good . Whether he holds a pen or a brush, the subject will do strong aesthetic work which will be surrounded by charming details, for the influence of the Moon will soften everything he touches .

CHIROMANCY 191 Intellect mixed, at once synthetic and analytic, fond of details and also of the whole, judging sanely and without spite when he becomes critical. Square hand, ruling in spite of the Martian influence .

The health does not seem very strong, but has improved, for physical resistance is written on a good little mount of Venus . The Head line is remarkable-strong mental activity and great sensitiveness come through the branches from the heart rather than

192 THE OCCULT SCIENCES the brain ; patience for a task of long duration, and constant desire to learn (first finger pointed, sign of intellectual curiosity) . Good Heart line denoting goodness, sensitiveness, impulsiveness, and also defective circulation of the blood (forks, bars on Mars which may cause hemoptysis) . Bars on Saturn and vertical lines crossing the Heart line-weakness of the legs to be feared in the future . Nails short (critical sense) . The hand of a man gifted for medicine (in which he would certainly have succeeded) . But also the hand of a writer (some of the fingers spatulate) . Result ability for documentary work . Union of the lines of the Heart and the Head-timidity, lack of self-confidence, physical crisis towards the 20th year, which will recur towards the age of 55 under the shape of a loss of vitality which, however, may be avoided by preventive means. On the whole a good hand of slow, difficult, but certain ascent (on account of the existence of a line of the Sun) . . And now may we say that this hand, giving correctly in every detail the above psycho-medical portrait, is that of the writer of our Introduction. We assert that the young and famous chiromancer had never before seen the writer of the introduction to this Encyclopaedia . Those who know him as poet, essayist and novelist will be surprised at such a correctness down to the smallest details . We should therefore like to see, as was done at the third International Congress of Experimental Psychology (1923), of which Mr. Muchery himself was one of the organisers, that Chirology should be applied by heads of institutions and by doctors, for it would in the most interesting manner give them information about the persons committed to their care.

CHAPTER IV GRAPHOLOGY I

General-Ancient and Modernised GRAPHOLOGY is the study of the relations existing between the hand-

writing of a person and his character . It is supported by observations more slender than those of Physiognomony. Its conclusions are therefore less radical, but thanks to the progress made, they are nevertheless sufficiently sure for it to be classed henceforth amongst the sciences, and to be studied by people who make all possible reserves concerning the divinatory arts . And yet it has a connection with these in the sense that, by determining the tendencies which are subtly inscribed in the written forms, it joins with them in the logical foretelling of fate and can consequently assist in the establishment of a psychopredictive or psycho-diagnostic portrait . Just as there are as many physiognomies as there are individuals, so there are as many kinds of writing as there are kinds of people . "And if the physiognomy," said Paul Barbe, 1 " which is so very instructive, deceives us sometimes, because it is easy to make up one's face according to the circumstances, yet the movements, which are instinctive and entirely spontaneous, cannot lead us into error ." But still it is necessary that we should have for our analysis a writing which itself is not disguised. Let us therefore say at once that in order to be able to form an opinion it is absolutely necessary to have before us a sincere writing, not a draft or a few words hastily written, not some writing in pencil (the pencil has not the sensitiveness of the pen), not a postcard where one is compelled to write the lines close together (the spacing between the lines, as will be seen, is of interest in graphology), not a laboured and constrained letter, sent perhaps to a superior, not the copy of a document, where the feelings of the copyist are of necessity alien to its context . The best thing is to have a letter written on unlined paper, written without the author knowing 1

Telle ecriture, tel caractLre (Jules Rouff, publisher) . 193

194 THE OCCULT SCIENCES that it would be studied from the point of view with which we are dealing, a letter written spontaneously and in such a manner that it truly reflects the natural state of mind of its author . In any case the fact that a writing is disguised does not escape the acute expert. For even if the shape habitually given to the letters is falsified, or their slope (by making upright a usually slanting writing) is altered, yet some details will soon disclose the fraud to the practised graphologist, and he will, and with good reason, not express an opinion on this dishonest disguise, any more than a physiognomist would give an opinion as to the true expression of an actor on the stage . What is the use of Graphology ? Even if it were only to give you information as to the person from whom you receive a letter, whether on business, from a new friend, distant relative, or desired object of our love, would it not be a great boon to know something of his temperament, to guess his tendencies, so as to be put on our guard or to accept his sympathy? But there is more than this, we repeat-to guess the temperament of a person, does it not mean foreseeing what he will do, what may happen to him, what the future has in store for him ? Having said this, let us recall in a few lines that from the earliest times the appearance of the handwriting struck prudent people . With them it was but intuition, and the reasoned study of writing was not to be started till our century . But Aristotle already claimed that he could define the soul of people by their way of writing, and when Suetonius noticed that the Emperor Augustus did not separate his words, he came to the conclusion that he neglected the detail for the sake of the vast whole. Later Goethe became much interested (in what subject was this great genius not interested ?) in these psychological curiosities . As early as 1622 Camillo Baldi wrote a small Latin book about them called De Signis ex Epistolis . Lavater studied them . The German Heuze erected a system on which unfortunately he committed nothing to writing .' The true promoter of scientific Graphology is the Abbe Michon 2 a preacher and novelist of Corr6ze (1806 to 1881), and the first serious book on the subject is that which he published in collaboration with Desbarolles . 3 Since then important books have been published by Cr6pieuxJamin, 4 Varinard, s Raymond, 6 R. de Salberg, 7 A. de Rochetal, 8 ' In 1915 a small book was published without author's name, but attributed to Hocquart The Art of Judging Characters of Men !. y their Writing, full of original sketches. • We must not, however, forget that as early as 1830 the Abby Flandrin began to systematise graphology after long studies in the Library of Autographs . • The Mysteries of Writing . ' Treatise of Graphology.-Writing and Character . Man is in his Writing, preface by Elie Dautrin . • Course of Graphology. • Manual of Common Graphology. ' Graphology Put Within the Reach of All.

GRAPHOLOGY 195 etc., and numerous popular works . Graphological studies are likewise found in the general books on the divinatory arts, such as the one by Jules de Grandpre . 1 And all are agreed that there is a close connection between the different parts of the body, that they are animated by the same mind . It is the body which produces the arm, the arm the hand, the hand the fingers . All movements receive their impulse from the mind (we mean by this for the moment temperament, character), and it follows that the mind reveals itself in the movement . And among all movements there are none so varied as those of the hand and the fingers . And does not the same phenomenon lead us to similar conclusions in art ? Does not the temperament of a painter reveal itself in his pictures ? Some occultists even claim that it would be possible to deduce from the pictures of a painter not only his character but also his physique, that the elegance of Raphael, the strength of Rubens, the clear brown complexion of Holbein, the ruddy face of Largillere are found in their work . The brush also is a pen which indicates the man . And after all what is writing but a drawing ? A drawing which speaks. And what it says has two meanings, the meaning deliberately put into the context, and the meaning unconsciously put into the outward shape of the context, that is to say the graphism . Before passing on to practical graphology, let us relate some anecdotes which show the usefulness of this beautiful science. Here is one which comes from the Memoirs of the Comte Horace de Viel Castel, that evil but witty tongue of the reign of Napoleon III . At the time of the betrothal of Mlle . de Duras with the Marquis de Custine, the Duchess de Duras had one day in her drawing room the young couple, the Comte de Nieuwerkerke, Baron Humboldt and a few other guests . Graphology was talked about, and Humboldt claimed that he could from the writing of people recognise their character . The Duchess suddenly handed him a letter and asked what he thought of the writer . Our scientist looks, examines, thinks, and begins to hold forth . He shows point by point that the author of the letter can only be bizarre, corrupt, of whom in short he drew an atrocious portrait without noticing that the Duchess, much annoyed, tried all she could to interrupt, or at least to soften the merciless verdict which dealt with the aspiring Marquis himself-who was present at the charge 1 The marriage was broken off. Custine married Mlle. de Courtomer and became the sad type whom everyone knows . The solemn German had not made a mistake. I The Art of Predicting the Future (Fayard, publisher) . Any desired documentation on this particular art will also be found in the History of Graphology of Emilie de Vars .

196

THE OCCULT SCIENCES M . Michon tells how he was asked by a worthy man aged 40 to examine his writing, in which the famous Abbd discovered an excessive melancholy, obvious loyalty, but also a heartrending lack of energy. His correspondent wanted his opinion, being on the one hand a bachelor very anxious to marry a certain young lady of 25 with whom he was much in love, and being on the other hand obsessed with the desire to go to Paris and start in business . The graphologist did not fail to advise him to give up his commercial intentions, as he was too naif and not sufficiently strong willed, and also to abandon his matrimonial plans relating to a woman who was too young and whom he would make unhappy . The good man took the advice, being thus saved from the double risk of compromising his fortune and his domestic happiness . A police officer friend of ours owed to Graphology one of the successes of his career. Some money had been stolen in a house, and no clue made the finding of the culprit possible . Having however noticed some blotting paper on which a note, not signed, had been blotted, and the master and mistress of the house having stated that they had had no opportunity of writing for three days, he examined the few lines written by reading them on the spot in a looking-glass, and described the probable character of the writer ; the description corresponded with the son who, on being questioned, became troubled and finally with tears admitted his theft and the name of the young woman for whose pleasure he had committed it, and with whom he had just fixed up a meeting to bring her the proceeds . In conclusion let us be ultra-modern and copy this extract from a newspaper of the 15th April, 1925 :" Let us watch our writing ! This obviously becomes necessary now that several American Life Assurance Societies refuse to decide the premium to be paid on death before having a specimen of the writing of the assured. Dr. Broud Kurt, who was the promoter of this new decision, claims that their clients must be divided into three classes, according to the size of the letters which they write . Those in group 1 will disappear nine years after the signing of their policies, those of the second group 25 years after, and those of the third group 50 years after. Figures given haphazard, you say ? In principle one might be inclined to believe it. But what is exceedingly disturbing is that statistics drawn up from the assured who have died proved Dr . Kurt entirely right ."

GRAPHOLOGY

197

II Method Some graphologists have tried to analyse the whole of the alphabet letter by letter, both as to the capitals and the small letters . This method has the double defect of being too fastidious and too detailed . It proves badly by wanting to prove too much . The more so as the same person, even sincerely, forms the same letters differently in the course of a page . In this Encyclopaedia where we guard against charlatanism, giving facts and ideas only by way of reference and with all reserve, we maintain that in Graphology as in all the other arts called divinatory we must exaggerate nothing ; that it is better to find in it only hints, sometimes very sure, but sometimes also somewhat vague, which must be taken into consideration only so far as they appear to corroborate each other . We think therefore that in Graphology it is necessary and sufficient to study :1. The general appearance of the writing . 2. The appearance of the letters . 3. The secondary appearances (dots, lines, terminations, paragraphs, etc .). 4. The influences which may modify the writing (health, age, nationality, etc.). It is under these four heads that we shall divide our remarks, giving or adding to them synoptic forms . And in this connection also let us note that if these tables are convenient, they run the risk of having a kind of dogmatic look against which we warn the reader. He must remember that other signs may seem to contradict them ; here also, therefore, it is an average which we have to look for, according to the great occult law of results . Before going fully into the subject, two words more, as to the graphic signs and as to the style of the writer. A graphic sign may be simple, for instance the return hook of the M . It may also be complex, if for instance this hook, already significant, is in addition club shaped . The more frequent and well defined a sign is, the more intensity it reveals in the quality or the defect which it expresses . Generally speaking, each writing has one or more dominants . It is well to be able to ascertain them . Often they jump to the eye and form a guide for the remainder of the researches . In the same way the quality of the style, clear or confused, frank or reticent, the syntax, the spelling, enable us at once to see if we are dealing with an ignorant or an educated person, a frank or an insincere

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being, an intelligent man or an idiot . This is not yet pure graphology, but no one would deny that this preliminary study prepares for it by giving the judgment hints for its subsequent examination . The following is a table of results drawn up by J . Crt pieux-Jamin The " t " weakly crossed Large lines of the pen Very sloping writing Large lines of the pen .. .. Upward lines Short endings .. .. Restless writing .. .. Sloping letters Clear and harmonious writing Rapid writing .. .. Writing barely sloping .. Very sloping writing Closed angles . . .. Sober writing .. .. Harmonious writing . . Rising writing .. Writing very sloping . . Letters close together Curves .. " N " written like " U " .. Writing sloping a little Writing very sloping . . " T " not crossed Rounded writing Serpentine writing . . Words getting smaller Backhand writing Re-entering hooks Very sloping writing Long " T " crossing . . Very sloping writing Sign of self-satisfaction . Re-entering hooks " T " crossing sword shaped . . Signs of pride . . .. Rounded lines Very sloping writing . .

RESULTS

Weak will : : J Cowardice . Imagination Great sensitiveness : : of judgment. Imagination }Lack Ardour . Economy ' ' Love of gambling. Agitation Sensitiveness Clear intellect . . Quick ideas . . . . Penetration . Moderate sensitiveness Sensitiveness . . : : Balanced sensitiveness . Firmness . } Approbation Intelligence . . . . Slight vanity . Ardour, ambition } Sensitiveness . . . . Lack of positivism Intuition .. .. (weathercock). Gentleness Benevolence . . Devotion . Sensitiveness Sensitiveness . . Laziness and unhappiLack of will-power ness . Gentleness Supple mind Delicacy ' ' Theft and lying. Dissimulation Egoism Passion Injustice. Liveliness Sensitiveness ' Susceptibility. Vanity Egoism Satire : : Spite . Pride Gentleness, weakness Lack of conscience . Sensitiveness, passion J

GRAPHOLOGY

199 RESULTS

Quiet mind Quiet writing . . : : Patience . Rounded writing Gentleness Light and graceful writing Delicacy Sloping writing. Sensitiveness . . Timidity . " T " weakly crossed Weak will-power " T " crossed long Vivacity Sloping writing Sensitiveness : : Spitefulness . Fine writing Impotence " T " crossed long Impotence Sloping writing Vivacity Very bad temper. Heavy writing or with thi ck strokes . . Strength .. Words getting smaller Delicacy Suppleness of mind : : }Diplomacy . Serpentine writing . . . III General Appearance of Writing This appearance relates to (a) The margination ; (b) The direction and the spacing of the lines ; (c) The spacing of the letters and the words ; (d) The height of the letters ; (e) The movement, the clearness, the legibility of the writing ; (f) The joining of the letters between each other, and even of the words to each other . (a) The margination of a page is the first thing which strikes the eye, but too great importance must not be attached to it . No doubt graphologists tell us that a page without margins or paragraphs indicates avarice ; an equal margin both sides, nicely framing the page, indicates order and harmony ; a normal and regular margin on one side only denotes economy ; a very wide one, generosity ; an increasing one, extravagance overcoming economy ; a decreasing one, economy overcoming extravagance . But we must not exaggerate, and above all we must avoid somewhat too easy deductions . We see people writing now with a margin, now without, according to whether they have little or much to say. We prefer putting our faith in the appearance, whether clean or neglected, sometimes dirty, of the paper and the envelope . This certainly indicates the care or otherwise which the writer bestows

200 THE OCCULT SCIENCES on what he does . Spots, blotches, a sheet with a corner turned down are not very flattering signs . One observation : look rather at the end of the letter than at its beginning on which generally more care is bestowed . The end gives a closer knowledge of the writer ; and if the writing, good at the start, becomes scrawling, you may be sure that you are dealing with a nervy or impatient person, who is apt to lack an orderly mind and perseverance. 1

.l-'1-- . -

-. L... L ,,

h-. -

MARGINS .

I" I. ..

•

N l..

-h. ' . Z

-.

-

,k 3

2

4

LINmms,

(b) The direction of the lines is much studied by graphologists . 1 . A horizontal, rigid, straight writing denotes will-power, inflexibility. The same, without too much rigidity-uprightness and perseverance. The same, soft-weak will-power, hesitation, irresolution . 2. A writing sloping upwards belongs to him who has dash and ambition . Sloping upwards but sloppy, it means stupid vanity . If it climbs, it is no longer ambition, but exaltation .

201 GRAPHOLOGY 3 . A writing sloping downwards is a sign of pessimism, of melancholy . 1 If it topples down in some way, the pessimism becomes mournfulness, gloominess . And if, sloping downwards, it yet shews some signs of strength, there is danger of discouragement, even of suicide . 4 . A writing with concave lines denotes reaction against adversity, an effort to fight against fate . A writing with convex lines shews presumption, with easy ups and downs.' A sinuous serpentine writing-suppleness of mind, diplomacy . 8 But of course it is possible for these various signs to be combined . The spaces between the lines also have their value Clear and regular-sane judgment . Irregular-imagination predominating. Very close-avarice. Very wide-liberality .

For ourselves we do not think it necessary to place too much reliance on this . Narrow spaces between lines may mean an abundance of ideas desired to be incorporated in one page . Wide spaces mean not so much liberality of the purse as liberality of the mind . (c) The same remark applies to the spacing of the letters . It may be that a close writing denotes avarice ; but in the end if this sign is to be found, it must be as the result of all the graphic close spacings-letters, lines and spaces between lines . And even then do not let us be too much in a hurry 1 According to this means of observation we find Widely spaced letters-prodigal instincts . Wide spaces with long end letters-generosity. Widely spaced letters without hooks (a sign of egoism)-disinterestedness. Widely spaced letters with hooks-interested generosity . Widely spaced letters with large strokes of the pen-extravagance . Normally spaced letters-wise economy . Close writing must not be mistaken for small writing . Besides it is possible to make small writing with large letters . ' Dr. Schwiedland gives the following physiological reason, Being discouraged, tired, we

lean towards less fatiguing movements, towards letting the arm drop, On the other hand the optimist is brave, and not afraid of the effort which " in some way raises his hand and makes the writing slope upwards ." • For instance Mme . de Pompadour-constant but ineffectual effort . And she died young. • Diplomacy, according to Crepieux-Jamin, is the result, rather than the sign, of delicacy and suppleness.

202

THE OCCULT SCIENCES (d) In children's writing the letters usually get larger towards the end of the word ; it has been noticed that in them, and also in grown-ups, it is a sign of childishness . It follows that a gladiolated writing (sword-shaped, that is to say getting smaller towards the end of the word) is a sign of the opposite -cunning . And if the end of the words is sometimes illegible because so small, or is merely a wavy line, we are entitled to think that the cunning becomes dissimulation, even perfidy . Writing of medium height and regular in this respect denotes integrity, loyalty . Irregular medium writing-versatility . Writing getting larger and heavy-obstinacy, exaggeration . Writing getting larger, but light-simplicity, credulity . Writing getting larger and inharmonious-stupidity. (e) The movement of the writing is in our opinion a subtle but sure indication. An excited person writes quickly, for vivacity is of the essence of his movements . A calm man writes steadily . And this is recognised at once . A hasty and very quick writing-extreme activity. If it is only quick, lack of reflection may be feared . If it is merely brisk, it resembles the mind, active and ready . The writing may also breathe strength, health . Then it is called dynamogenious . The calm writing of which we spoke above may be soft like the writer. Careless writing indicates thoughtlessness ; if hesitating, indecision ; if trembling, fatigue . But here we fall into too easy assimilations. Much to be preferred is the information conveyed by a clear and distinct writing, the daughter of mental balance, to that conveyed by a confused, tangled, in one word bizarre, writing, the daughter of an odd mind. Legibility may be rapid and easy in frank, brisk and honest characters . It may also exist, but slow like their thought, which accentuates the sign of honesty . Illegible but equal-an ardent, precipitate, impulsive nature . Illegible but pointed, the words getting smaller-cunning, dissimulation, inscrutability. (f) The joining of letters and words gives information to the graphologist from the psychological standpoint that the intuitive creator of ideas puts these down without connection, whereas the deductive type carries out, deduces, reasons, hence connects .

GRAPHOLOGY 203 From this point of view we therefore have two kinds of writing, the detached, cut, and the connected . If we raise this observation to the ethnographical level, so as to give it a striking confirmation, we find that the Oriental who is contemplative, has a detached writing, and that the Occidental, who is practical, and acts, has a connected writing. The following are the main differences in this graphological scheme A writing entirely disconnected denotes a taste for paradox-if less so, a taste for theorising, intuition . If only the first letter of the word is disconnected-intuition followed by realisation .' The connected writing, as we have said, belongs to the deductive type . If even the words are joined together-excess of deductiveness, sophistry . Writing with an equal number of letters disconnected and an equal number connected-good mental balance . More letters detached than connected-ideas predominate . Less letters detached than connected-realisation predominates . IV

Appearance of the Letters (Capitals) The simplest means of making ourselves understood would seem to be to draw up a table :1 . Simple capitals, well traced, or resembling small letters--well developed intellect . 2 . Ungraceful and awkward capitals-poor intellect . 3 . Graceful capitals, with harmonious curves descending below the line-taste, elegance, aesthetic sense . 4 . Capitals resembling print-aesthetic sense, love of form . 5 . Capitals with many flourishes and curves-pretension, ostentation. 6. Capitals resembling figures-methodical people who reason from exact premises. 7. Dashing capitals-trenchant characters . 8 . Capitals very long as compared with the following small letters -pride . Capitals low and small-modesty or dissimulation .

_ " In writings which have all the letters connected, there are some which have the first letter cleanly disconnected, and I have found that this sign corresponded with brains rich in deductiveness, but which yet had an initial movement towards intuition " (Abbe Michon) .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 9 . Capitals closely written -timidity. Capitals very large and open -bluff . 10. Capitals large at foot-practical sense . Capitals large on the top-idealism or vanity. 11 . Capitals high up " as if on stilts "-self-sufficiency, vanity. 12 . Capital underlining the following letters-self-complacency . Capital covering the following letters-protecting pride . 13 . Capital ending towards the left-fight with oneself . Capital ending towards the right-independent spirit . 14. Very large capitals-pretentiousness . Absence of capitals, modesty or material mind . 15 . Hook at beginning-acquisitiveness . Hook at both endsavarice . 16 . Capital ending in backward hook-egoism . Capital connected with the small letter following-self-forgetfulness . The letter M in particular attracts attention by its variations :17. The M with three downstrokes, called aristocratic, denotes a person of the cultured world . The M with two downstrokes, called popular, denotes the contrary, or if it is found among . intellectuals, all failures write it thus . If very high and very broad-boasting, self-confidence . 18 . The first downstroke higher than the others-pride of comparison . Downstrokes equal size-no ambition . If like the lastdesire for approval . 19 . Like a down staircase-pessimism . Like an upward staircase -vulgar ambition . 20. Joining of strokes rounded, angular, or half-way up :-1, Gentleness ; 2, Obstinacy ; 3, Keen acquisitiveness.

204

V

Appearance of the Letters-Small

We propose to study them from the following points of view :Dimensions, direction, shape, arrangement and plastic, openness, soberness, slope, upstrokes and downstrokes . A. Writing wide-courage, openness, daring. „ sinuous and supple-the parvenu . „ rigid and firm-great daring . „ high and upright-pride, even arrogance . „ high and sloping-compassionate pride . „ high with backward hooks-pride, disdain . narrow-timidity if it is high ; or avarice if it is small and „ compact .

GRAPHOLOGY GRAPHOLOOICAL TABLE-CAPITALS.

205

1

2

3

4

TM -R-q 5

/-f

4

7

6

8 Ca4

9

~

i1

13

10

12

~

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

206

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Writing not wide but high-largeness of views, knowledge of one's own strength . „ high and wide-love of display . „ high and narrow-constraint . „ high and alert-great imagination . high and slow-proud aspirations . „ „ small-cunning, minutia, sometimes avarice . „ small and harmonious-delicacy of mind . small and harmonious, the crossing of the " T " ending in a „ point---caustic character . „ small and harmonious with last letter ending in a pointcunning . „ small and inharmonious-stinginess . small and inharmonious with regular pointing-mania . „ „ small and inharmonious, close and compact-avarice . „ small, low and flat-timid humility, no breadth of mind .

But it must not be forgotten that long-sighted people write large and short-sighted people small . Therefore, before coming to a decision, we must study other graphological elements . A thick writing denotes material instincts, greediness, sensuality . A thin writing denotes an absence of voluptuousness . A firm writing shows energy and temperament . But firm and defaced-coarseness, brutality . A light writing (less firm than the thin) denotes delicacy, weakness, a somewhat sickly nature . B . Let us pass on to the direction of the letters . It is based on the distinction between the strong, the active, the go-ahead and the hesitating, the delaying in everything . The former have been called dextrogyrous and the latter sinistrogyrous, because the former slope their writing towards the right, the others towards the left or backwards . If a dextrogyrous writing slopes towards the right strokes which should normally slope towards the left, this denotes in its author activity, intelligence, altruism . If on the other hand a sinistrogyrous writing slopes towards the left strokes intended for the right, we infer from this that its author is slow, hesitating, inactive . Thus the head of a business will know beforehand the character of him who applies for a post by letter . C . Shape. This is either rounded or angular . A rounded writing denotes an easy temper, gentleness, sometimes softness and indecision. Rounded and very sloping-passion leading perhaps to a lack of conscience . Rounded, sloping and connected-self-abandonment .

GRAPHOLOGY

207

Rounded, sloping and upward-devotion . Rounded, sloping and calm-patience, and in the case of soft writing, laziness . An angular writing indicates a peevish obstinate character . If it is angular and sloping-weak sentimentality. Angular, erect and alert-quarrelsome mind . Angular, erect and stiff-malevolence . There are writings which are so to speak square-they can bend, but rule if necessary .

D. There are also orderly careful writings . Others are disorderly and scrawling . And they are so consistently or intermittently, indicating constancy or inconstancy of instinct . Needless to say a " made " handwriting has no graphological value . But there are pleasing, beautiful, harmonious writings, indicating good taste, and unpleasant, ugly inharmonious writings which indicate the contrary. E. We do not think too much ought to be made of the openness of letters (a, o, g, q, etc .), of which the gamut is as follows :Letters very open-thoughtless confidence, indiscretion . • open at the top-expansiveness, frankness . „ open backward-expansiveness towards strangers . • open at the bottom-hypocrisy, dishonesty . „ open irregularly-discretion. „ generally closed-reserve. „ hermetically closed-inscrutability . „ with curves-concentration . „ with curves above-open backwards-hypocritical expansiveness . F. Graphologists also claim to read in the soberness or the flourishes, in the one a sign of gravity, in the other a sign of vanity, going as far as coquetry or silliness . A dry writing denotes a sense of truth and the abstract. Severity makes a writing dry, angular and rigid . G. The slope of the writing gives the following shades :Sloping backwards-dissimulation, reserve, distrust . Upright-strength of character and judgment . Sloping very slight-sensitiveness of the heart, but calm maintained . Well sloping-tenderness, the heart dominating the head . Very sloping-almost lying down-excessive sensitiveness . Varied sloping-struggle between the heart and the head .

208

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

H. The downstrokes and upstrokes have been the subject matter of various observations :Rounded and slight-tenderness . Rounded and thick-devotion . Angular and light-egoism, dryness of heart . Angular and thick-coarse passion . Upper downstroke larger than lower-intellectual activity . Lower downstroke larger than upper-physical activity. Downstrokes well proportioned-mental and physical balance . Tail of downstroke curved rightliness . Downstrokes short-clear mind sane judgment. long-lively imagination. „ „ excessively long-exalted imagination . „ crossed-obstinacy. „ with curves or little hooks at bottom-verbiage. Downstroke connected with the small letter following-sociability . The small D, like the capital M, has attracted special attention . It has all sorts of shapes, of which the following are the principal :-

4

2

3

k

5

6

7

6

9

40

!f

1 . Copybook type-simplicity, even insignificance . 2 . Going straight up-ideal aspirations . 3. Inclined to the left-intellectuality . 4 . Covering the preceding letters-struggle against imagination. 5 . Going below the line-egoism. 6. Thrown forward to the right-independence . 7 . With right hand curve-imagination. 8. Curved with stroke across-lively imagination . 9. With repeated curves-exaltation . 10. With flourishes-coquetry, pretentiousness . 11 . Connected with the following small letter-sequence of ideas . We repeat once more with Mr. Barbe himself-graphologists have multiplied the signs to such an extent that in the end they have spoilt the interest in the signs . Each new expert tries to find something fresh. Let us be careful. We will, however, give the chief discoveries recently made or claimed to have been made, and we shall close our study of the small letters . Here again a table would be convenient :-

209 GRAPHOLOGY 1. Greek letters-some vanity . 2. Small " b " with convex back-benevolence. 3 . Letters finished afterwards-love of detail . 4. Curves descending below the line-keenness for money . 5. The " m " and the " n " curved at top-firm character . 6. The same letters curved at the bottom-gentleness, amiability . 7. The letters " p," " j " etc ., taller than the other letters-clear imagination . 8 . The " j," " g," etc., crossed in the middle of the downstroke-domestic " gong up a little higher than the following letter--sense of duty . 9. The 10. The " x " like a St. Andrew's cross, with straight lines-fighting spirit .

v"

_X1*7

8

/ 10

Let us stop here so as not to get fanciful . And rather, returning to the main line of our observations, let us say that the general appearance gives excellent indications, much better than these too precise details . Yes, it is correct that the courageous man, with broad and daring gestures, will have a writing of the same kind, that the timid man, who makes himself small in his life, will write closely, that a person with broad views will have a tall writing, whereas the meticulous will cling to the details of a writing which will almost always be very small . It is correct that a broad writing denotes appetites, and that a fine writing marks delicacy, etc . In the same way there are writings which reveal clearness, frankness or dissimulation, aristocratic and common writings, etc . It seems to us that we must not try to go too far in reading a soul with certainty through some shape of a letter or other sign . This might lead us into mistakes, and by insisting on it into charlatanism . VI

Secondary or Accessory Appearances of Writing These consist of the accents, the crossings, the dots and the punctuation, the initials and finals, the signatures and flourishes, the erasures . A . It is logical, if not always correct, to say that order shews itself in placing accents regularly, but the contrary may be the result of mental super-activity .

210

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Accents placed rather high suggest good activity ; those which are heavy and placed low indicate less high instincts . The accent with a hook would indicate a restless mind . The circumflex accent drawn in one line betokens mental activity. B . The logical double dash framing a secondary phrase indicates a cultured person. Too many words underlined attract the eye with an annoying presumption. The crosses of the T have been much observed on account of their amazing variety, and the following table has been drawn up :Length :None (that is absence of cross)-ill-will . 1 . Weak-mediocre will power. 2 . Long-vivacity, impatience . Normal-good will . Resemblance :Dissimilar in the same writing-inconstancy . Cross always alike-constant will-power . Height :3. The cross low-submissive character . Half way up-calm thoughtful will . Rather high-strong will. 4. Above the " t "-domineering character . 5. Making a curve above the " t "-oppressive will. Thickness :6. Fine-vivacity of mind . 7. Strong-strong will . 8. Heavy-violent temperament . 9. Thicker at one end-coarse instincts . Place :10. Behind the " t "-hesitation . Crossing the " t "-decision . 11 . In front of the " t "-initiative. Shape :12 . Very thick at the end-powerful will . 13 . Very thick at the beginning-enthusiasm . 14 . Getting thinner-aggressive will. 15 . Like a harpoon at the end and upward-supple tenacity . 16 . Like a harpoon at the end and downward-tenacity without suppleness . 17. Like a harpoon at the beginning, tenacious resistance .

GRAPHOLOGY

Direction :-

211

18 . 19 . 20 . 21 . 22 .

Rising at an angle from the bottom-contradictory mind . Rising from the middle-disputing mind . Rising in a curve-unaggressive quibbling mind . Rising in a rigid line-aggressive quibbling mind . Going down in a rigid line-obstinacy .

23. 24 . 25 . 26 .

Concave curve-gentle cheerfulness. Curve thicker in the middle-love of material pleasures . Curve like a whiplash-carelessness . Curve like a lasso-seductive will-power .

Curved lines :-

t -I-

2

3

4

5

6

7

11

42

.13

44

45

4

?t

21

22

23

24

25

e 26

)4

27

t

-6

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78

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g

C/29

9 __ 30

8

28

9

10

Backward curves :27. 28 . 29 . 30.

Angular-obstinacy . Angular and long-strong obstinacy . Ending at the bottom in a curve-patience . Returning curve and long-pigheadedness .

These types of crossings are simple . But in most cases the writing shows various combinations of these types . It is for the expert graphologist to find a solution .

C . There is a very old saying-putting the dots on the " i's," which means, be exact . The dot on the " i " has become a graphological element which has the following variations :Absence of dots-negligence . Dots placed regularly and well-careful orderly mind . Dot to the right of the " i "-quick mind. Dot to the left of the " i "-slow thinking. Light dot placed high-imagination, even mysticism . Light dot placed low-practical even earthly mind . Dot accentuated-firmness, sensuality .

212

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Point lengthening into an accent-ardent nature . Thick and heavy dot-coarse instincts . Dot like a light comma-mental activity . Dot like a heavy comma-diligent mind . Square thick dot-materialism . Point connected with the following small letter-great enthusiasm .

So much for the dot crowning the " i ." 1 Now for the dot ending the sentences :If it is always lacking-lack of distrust . If it follows the signature-distrust . Heavy or light-materialism or spiritualism . Punctuation likewise gives information :Correct punctuation-order and logic . Bad punctuation-intellectual activity and lack of distrust . Light or heavy exclamation mark-spiritualism or materialism . Repeated exclamation mark-enthusiasm . Graceful and light question mark-aesthetic taste . Heavy and badly made question mark-lack of taste . Repeated question mark-mental exaltation . Dots or dashes-if they are all over the place-romanticism . D. Study of first and last letters of words :1 . Small hook at the beginning of a capital-acquisitiveness . Curve like the handle of basket-reserve and concentration . Large initial curve-dash, gaiety . Rigid line at the start-combativeness and even contradictoriness . 2 . Last letter cut short, medium or long-economy, wisdom, extravagance . Rising, curved-religiosity, gratitude . Rising stiff-susceptibility, temper . Horizontal-affection, courtesy . Descending-practical mind . Drooping-keenness for money . Turning to the left-self-conflict . Last letter thickening upward-strong will . Last letter forming an acute angle-peevishness . Last letter like a rising harpoon-supple tenacity . Last letter like a falling harpoon-tenacity without diplomacy . Last letter curved-gentleness . Very large last letter-exaltation, ostentation . Last letter flying into the air-quibbling . ' Albert de Rochetal, editor of the Graphological Review, is amongst those for whom the

dots on the " i " have much importance . In his book (('raphology Put Within the Reach of All) he says that the accentuation of a dot is the accentuation of an idea.

GRAPHOLOGY 213 E . The signature in our opinion has much more value than the majority of the other graphological signs . 1 It is a very sure sign of personality-it becomes its seal . Hence the number of types of signatures and flourishes is enormous ; there are almost as many as there are persons . Yet they have been classified (see table with figures given). A signature without flourish belongs to mediocrity ; but if it is that of an intellectual person it reveals a superior being to whom his i1

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6

7

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13

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name suffices because it contains the whole of him . Many men of genius and high position, rulers of the mob, have neglected the flourish . For instance Corneille, Victor Hugo . 1 . A signature followed by a dot denotes a prudent cautious nature, afraid of opinion. For instance the signature of Thiers . 2. A signature followed by a stroke denotes the distrustful man who is on his guard and plays all his trumps . For instance Mirabeau . 3. A signature ending in a downward stroke like a sword betokens 3 From the commercial, judicial, anthropometrical point of view, says Professor Raymond,,

the signature is of the greatest importance, and therefore could not be missed by Graphology Without this peculiarity the whole economic life would suffer ; it is the talisman against forgers, and he who ventures to forge a signature carries his condemnation in his own hand .

214 THE OCCULT SCIENCES the defensive type . If the end is like a club, the resolute defensive ; if like a harpoon, violently defensive . 4. A flourish after the signature ending in a point denotes the aggressively militant (Robespierre) . Yatagan-shaped-the combative fighter (Henri Rochefort) . Vertical or almost-brain predominant (Pasteur), with signs of will-power if it thickens, of combativeness if it gets thinner, of tenacity if like a harpoon, etc . 5. The shield-like flourish (seeming to protect the name and then drooping) denotes the courageous, but with a shade of prudence . 6 . A plain line underlining the name-pride of one's own personality (Barres) . 7 . A back stroke without curve-defensive, grudge-bearing . 8 . Stroke underlining with little hook at end-pride mixed with skill. 9 . Back stroke with several angular return lines-energetic vindictive fighter . 10. Backstroke like lightning or zigzag-active and quick selfwilled. If the zigzags are rounded or angular-gentleness or rigidity in such will-power. 11 . The back stroke forming gentle curves is that of the cheerful type, of the good-natured . 12 . Lasso with several knots-great skill (F . Arago) . If the lassos cross each other-divided from the signature-spirit of intrigue. 18 . If the lasso takes the shape of a corkscrew-cunning. 14 . The flourish like a knotted necktie is that of tact, of skill in negotiations. 15 . A cobwebby flourish-industrial or commercial ability . A flourish like railings-distrust. 16 . A flourish almost completely surrounding the name tells of an egotism which insists on satisfaction . If the flourish completely surrounds the name and encloses itthe life is neither expansive nor bright. VII Summary Many have tried to sum up the art of Graphology, to prepare convenient tables . F . Clerget gave quite a good summary in a little book called How to Read in the Thought . Here it is, agreeing roughly with the detailed data which we have given :-

GRAPHOLOGY

215

Writing.-Accentuated-despotism. Lengthy-suppleness . Angularstrength, energy . Sloping-ambition, dash . Well spaced-method, order, judgment. Curved-weakness, gentleness . Downward-discouragement, melancholy. Hard to read-dissimulation. Like strokes of a swordardour, courage, struggle . Wide-extravagance . Narrow-meanness . Firm-integrity, loyalty . Fine and close-carefulness, cunning, avarice . Strong-passion. Getting smaller-cunning . Getting thicker-frankness, naivety. Sloping-sensitiveness . Connected-calculation. Masterlynobility . Neglected-thoughtlessness, carelessness, laziness . Clearorder, method. Sloping from right to left-feeling . Sloping from left to right-resistance, revolt . Straight-reason . Small-carefulness . Largewill-power, domination . Without end letters-economy. Serpentinecunning, lies . Thin-discretion, reserve . Level-calm, tranquillity . Lines.-Sloping upwards-ambition . Sloping downwards-discouragement. Sloping upwards and downwards-unequal character . Straight-order, calm . Wide spaced-extravagance . Incoherent-restlessness, agitation. Many on the page-economy, churlishness . Wavy-cunning, skill . Words .-Rising-ardour . Drooping-fatalism . Widely spaced-extravagance . Getting smaller-skill, irony . Getting bigger-confidence . Connected together-assimilation, calculation . Many to the line-economy, avarice . Few to the line-generosity . Without end letters-reserve, economy . Letters.-With hooks-egotism, pride . Angular-personality . Roundedegotism . Disconnected-extravagance . Well proportioned-taste, poetry . Disguised in themselves-cunning hypocrisy . Disproportioned-lack of judgment. Close together-avarice . Weak and pointed-lack of resolution . Closed-reserve, lies. Last letters angular-obstinacy . Illegible-bizarre character. Very faint-weakness . Unequal downstrokes-versatility . Downstrokes disconnected-disorder . Open-candour, gossip . Wideimagination . Very heavy-pose. Capitals .-Lower than the line-lack of taste . Too high-meanness. Largepride. Small-simplicity . Put instead of small letters-pride, egotism . Harmonious-restraint, justness, taste . Curves .-Exaggerated-imagination . Firm-daring . Soft-laziness. Numerous-kindness, gentleness . Hooks .-On the capitals-egotism . Backward-egotism . Very marked-pride . Dashes.-At the end of the lines-doubt, distrust . Hard and broken offpigheadedness. Getting thicker-strong will . Uncertain-timidity, Dashing upwards-rashness . cunning . Dashing-vivacity, ardour. Supple-kindness, gentleness . Crossing of the " T ."-With angular backstroke-obstinacy . Short and clear-resolution . Hooked-tenacity . Pointed-will-power, no consistence. Club shaped-obstinacy . Serpentine-will-power, suppleness . In mesh-independent . Strong, with sudden stop-limited ideas . Very faint-weak will . Long-vivacity . Missing-lack of will-power . Placed high up-despotism . Long and strong-firmness, energy .

216

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Various .-Numerous angles-cold heart . Angles very acute-obstinacy. End letters hooked-narrowness . End letters long-extravagance, large views . Numerous flourishes-pride . Great movements of the penimagination, exaltation . Decorations-self-sufficiency. Small letters ed-artistic sense . Dots missing-imprudence, excessive confidence . No punctuation-thoughtlessness, imprudence . Signs accentuatedintense abilities . Signs irregular-unequal abilities . print

VIII

Influences which Modify the Writing The influences, which are capable of deforming, of altering the nature of the writing, are moral or physical . They must be taken into account, and it will be seen at once how difficult they make graphological decisions . It is certain that if one is pressed for time, if at the moment of writing one is in a bad temper, if one has the kind of pen to which one is not used, if one is preoccupied, saddened, or on the other hand enthusiastic, the writing will show it . Through adopting the official style of writing esteemed by administrations, the bureaucrat will end by losing his spontaneity to some extent. In the same manner monks and nuns, soldiers, school pupils all have a kind of uniform writing due to restraint . But as soon as they are free from this restraint, their individual character reasserts itself. And then there is the nervous person whose writing gets jumpy (more than it would normally be), the drunkard who makes it shaky, the madman who makes it eccentric, etc . Certain manual occupations make the hand heavy ; on the other hand the liberal professions give a great freedom . Lovers of the aesthetic all have a harmonious writing . Age exerts an influence-the heavy, hesitating and impersonal writing of the child gets lighter, firmer and personal . Towards the age of twenty we generally have a writing. On the threshold of old age the writing tends to get less firm and to shake . The sex of the writer is also generally easily recognised . A woman's writing is usually light, rounded, sloping, with long end letters, very long letters and in the whole thinner than a man's which is firmer, quieter, more connected . It would take too long to note all the influences which may alter the writing-ink, pen, light, seat, paper, clothes, cold, etc .-and as

GRAPHOLOGY

217

to the signs of the nationality of the writer, that would lead us too far. Let us merely note that :The English writing is usually high, angular, with broken and badly shaped lines . The German writing is almost always regular, thoughtful, sloping . The Slav (Russian or other) writing shows in its roundness and disconnection the suppleness of these nations . The Italian writing is harmonious, artistic, less energetic than the Anglo-Saxon . Ix Luck and Handwriting

Here is a small table, borrowed from Papus (the Book of Luck) which, according with the data of the preceding pages, will show you :The signs of good luck (therefore to be sought)Lines slanting upwards . Crossing of the " T " high or upwards. Letters connected and clear . Wide margins . The ` o ' and " a " open. Dots on the " i " well marked . The, signs of bad luck (therefore to be corrected)Lines slanting downwards . " T " crossing missing, too low or sloping downwards . Letters disconnected and badly shaped . Lack of margins . The " o " and " a " closed . Dots on the " i " badly marked . We make our reservations as to the margins, but add :To the signs of good luck :Round, regular, legible writing. Writing without backward hooks . Upright or slightly sloping writing . To the signs of bad luck :Angular, squat or illegible writing . Writing with backward hooks . Backward or exaggeratedly sloping writing .

The explanation of this advice is neither occult nor extraordinary . Those who have properly read the present chapter will have noticed that the writing corresponding to the signs of good luck is that of

218 THE OCCULT SCIENCES optimistic, intelligent, frank, good persons, not egotistical or hypocritical ; that of the unlucky ones being also that of the pessimist, the man without ideas, of weak will-power, insufficient reflection, egotistical, coarse, hypocritical . And the best means of succeeding in life has always been to have a loyal, firm, generous character, to be confident in one's own power, and not to undertake anything thoughtlessly or without the will to carry through . X Types of Handwriting Serious study of any science will lead to a particular manner of classification . Thus we have seen chiromancers of repute make different groupings of the various forms and styles of hands . In the same way in Graphology Professor Raymond-to mention no others-has divided handwritings into a certain number of types shown by thee following table :(a) The plebeian writing.-Coarse, heavy and gross . It is that of the common people who do not like to hold a pen, and if they are forced to do so, they put into it the coarseness of their mind which thinks little and of their awkward hand . (b) The practical writing.-That of doctors, underwriters, architects, etc. The letters are very harmonious, connected, close, small, often illegible . (c) The aesthetic writing .-Lightly traced, with graceful curves . Letters printed . The writing of musicians generally slopes upwards, harmonious ; that of painters has artistic and somewhat soft curves ; that of sculptors has disconnected letters, that of the actor flourishes, some vanity, a tendency to the fanciful . (d) The copybook writing.-That of the clerk . No idealism. A dry, banal writing . (e) The intellectual writing.-Medium height, moderate slope, calm lines, regular punctuation, signature sloping upwards, the various signs of order, thought and a laudable ambition . (f) The writing of genius.-Superior harmony in a disjointed writing, proof of an intuitive mind and a creative imagination . Simplicity and clearness . No flourishes . (g) The mixed writing .-It is the writing of the soldier, aviator, fencer, etc . Impatience, nervousness, end letters like a whip lash .

GRAPHOLOGY 219 (h) The rounded writing.-Gentleness, charm, kindness, sometimes weakness . (i) The angular writing .-Gravity, severity, courage, rigidity, sometimes quibbling . (j) The pathological writing .-It shows impressive or expressive derangements . It is always odd . It shows itself in various ways :shaking, sudden bursts, breaks, exaggerations, lines very wavy, etc. The criminal has the signs of falseness and of coarseness, a sinistrogyrous writing, enormous club-shaped letters, etc . Another method of classification has been suggested by Dr . Schwiedland, based on the examination of the slopes, which he has divided into six categories :6

2

BASIS OF WRITING OF THE ScawxEDLAND GBApnoMBTEB .

Direction 1-vertical-cold and reserved natures . Direction 2-continued sensitiveness, without passions . Direction 3-passionate sensitiveness, but governed by will-power . Direction 4-the will-power diminishes ; sensitiveness gains the victory . Direction 5-a susceptibility almost diseased. Direction 6 (to the left of 1)-timidity, dissimulation.

CHAPTER V CARTOMANCY I

History of the Cards The origin of the cards, at least according to Legend, is a story of love :When Charles VI, King of France, began to feel the first signs of approaching madness, he was loved by a young girl of great sensitiveness called Odette, who devoted her life to him . The first thought of this loving girl was to distract the thoughts of her Prince . She was skilful to avoid the crises of terrible boredom which tormented him, and sought games, songs, stories capable of occupying the mind of the King . As there was much talk at that time of an invention which had come from the land of the Saracens and which consisted of coloured cards by means of which all kinds of amusing combinations could be arranged, she sent for a pack of this kind, and asked a painter to decorate others similarly . The plan succeeded, the royal lover had much pleasure, and in his lucid moments was able to follow the combinations ; it was seen that the crises which did him so much harm became less frequent . Legend-or if you prefer it a Chronicle of the period-adds that a Saracen woman, having heard of the good influence which the game had on the mind of the King, came one day to see Odette and offered to complete her knowledge :" You know how to arrange these cards so as to derive amusement from them," she said . " I will teach you to arrange them so as to learn a lesson from them ." She took the cards and spread them on a table and began to tell what their combinations revealed, just as if she were reading an open book. Astonished and delighted, Odette bought her secret . And since then, during seven centuries, the oracle of the cards has been consulted by thousands and thousands of people . 220

CARTOMANCY 221 This story, at bottom simple enough, had to become somewhat complicated . It so happened that Odette was unable to keep her secret, and confided it, doubtless discreetly, to her companions ; but tongues move quickly, especially when some of them are in love . Soon the whole Court knew how to " make the cards," and crowds came to the shop of the painter Jaquemin Gringonneur, the amiable decorator of the little cards . But certain fickle lovers were upset to find that the cards revealed their infidelities . Under the pretext that the card game led to losses of money, they obtained a royal edict which forbade their use . Now a soldier of the name of La Hire resolved to obtain the repeal of the edict by means of a trick ; for he owed gratitude to the Saracen invention thanks to which he had learnt of the love of a lady whom, without their oracle, he would not have dared to court . He therefore asked Jaquemin to make a set of cards each of which was to show a patriotic emblem . He got him to paint ladies which were named Pallas the Goddess of Arms, Judith the great Jewess, Argina the gentle fairy (in fact Odette herself), Rachel, the symbol of the harsh Ysabeau . And also Kings, all brave and wise monarchsDavid, Caesar, Charlemagne, Alexander. And also daring fighting men-Hogier, Lancelot, Hector, and . . . La Hire himself. The stratagem succeeded . He extended it to the suits :-the club became the sword guard, the heart the tip of the cross-bow, the diamond the iron of the arrow, the spade the tool of the same name which was so useful in a siege. This is the Legend-in which some give the name of Agnes Sorel instead of that of Odette . But assuredly the history of Cards is not only much older, but quite antique . This is proved by the Taroc, the Egyptian Taroc of which we shall speak later on, which is a kind of pack of cards, but a much more complicated pack, with an entirely philosophical foundation, since the Taroc is nothing but a symbolical expression of the hermetic science . The Lydians, the Saracens-who called them Nights-knew the cards and drew their omens, following their custom of always reproducing by a picture a symbol of the happenings of the future which all nations have known . 1 Nonetheless, it is in the 15th Century-here Legend joins hands with History-that the cards took their present appearance (except 1 This is proved by the fact that the Synod of Worcester in 1240 forbade clerks The Game of the King and the Queen, that cards called naibi are mentioned in an Italian manuscript of 1299, that monastic statutes of 1337 proscribed the game of Tagince, that a Castilian school in 1387 likewise forbade cards .

222 THE OCCULT SCIENCES during the Revolution, when they expressed republican laws and virtues) . Whether ancient or modern, they have always attracted curiosity, study and interpretation, formerly by the Magi, now by the " FortuneTellers," but also by more enlightened minds, cartomancers belonging to the highest ranks of Occult Scientists . II Are we to believe the Cards Z In the Introduction an attempt to justify Cartomancy, or rather a search for the mechanism of divination which it sets up, has been found. It is certain that the time will come when this mechanism will be revealed. Up to now we can only vouch for the truth of cartomancy by experience . The divinatory data thus supplied have been looked upon as conclusive for hundreds of years by thousands of people. What can reasoning do against this? Remember Josephine . Was it not a cartomancer who foretold to her that one day she would occupy a throne ? And when the mistress of Bonaparte did occupy it, was it not a cartomancer who foretold that she would fall from it if she tried the dictator by her moods? The same who, recalled later by the Empress who was afraid of the shipwreck of her fortunes, could only confirm her oracle-abandonment, loneliness and tears ? Remember the actress who, playing Carmen, alarmed her companions in the wings by saying to them, " During the card scene I unwittingly drew the 7, 8 and 9 of spades one after the other ; it is a sign of death ; woe is me 1 "-and died during the night . This might be a proof of terrible auto-suggestion . That is to say that obsessed by the event, the unhappy woman might have exerted all her destructive forces against all her vital forces, to the extent of succumbing when the latter were defeated . Mystery 1 We need not mention a quantity of familiar cases . Everyone knows some of his own . By accident we read a number of the Ere Nouvelle, and from the always witty chronicle of Georges Pioch we extract this passage which relates a personal recollection of the writer who one day was in the Breton hamlet of Moulin de la Rive, near Morlaix, together with Madame Caillaux, her daughter Germaine (who has since become Madame Saulgeot), Mr . Pontana who was the secretary of Mr . Joseph Caillaux, the painter Bloomfield, and two or three others . To kill time, relates Pioch, his wife suggested to those present that she should read their cards .

CARTOMANCY 223 " When the turn of Madame Caillaux came to be informed by this game which was as derisory as our fate, the cards said : He of whom you think will be condemned but put at liberty immediately after his condemnation . He will lose three of his best friends, and then his luck will change . A few years later he will return to power . " Pascal Ceccaldi, Pontana and d'Estournelles de Constant, who were the best friends of Mr . Joseph Caillaux, are no more . And the condemned man of the day is to-day our minister of Finance ." 1 Amongst the celebrated cartomancers we must mention Marie Ambruget who foretold to Louis XIV the outcome of the battle of Denain, Lenormand, born at Alengon in 1768, who died in 1848, and to whom Gall had foretold that she would become " the first witch in Europe " (and in fact she made an enormous number of predictions which have come true) . Amongst chiromancers survives the name of Fiasson, the tailor of the Rue Saint-Honors whom the Duke of Orleans (the Regent) used to consult, and of Moreau, much esteemed by the wives of soldiers who, under the Empire, asked him for news of their husbands . He used the grounds of coffee and the cards, but died poor unlike his competitors, most of whom grew rich . As for Lenormanc:, she worked mainly on Fridays, and in this connection it should be observed that Tradition as a matter of fact mentions Fridays and Mondays as lucky days for reading the cards . Schwabergen wrote in 1672 a book in Latin on Occult Sciences, in which he shews that in addition there are favourable hours, and that no divinatory operations (whether by cards or otherwise) should be undertaken when it is too foggy, stormy, raining or windy. A calm sky appears to him an essential condition . And after all it is not unreasonable to think that at that moment the operator is at the height of his occult powers . Is Cartomancy always successful in its predictions ? By no means. Side by side with the truth there are errors . Be it so. But neither must we on the one hand imagine that the first woman who comes along is able to " read the cards " and on the other hand demand from her exact details, or accept them from her if given . In any case, following the opinion of Paul Jagot and the writer of our introduction, intuition, clairvoyance and lucidity are faculties which as yet are barely known to Psychology or rather modern Hyperpsychics . The true cartomancer, by unconsciously handling the arcana of the cards or of Taroc, and in a kind of secondary state into which she gets by the traditional ritual, fulfils psychical conditions of a special kind which enable her to obtain a glimpse of the future, to lift the veil of the past, to grasp some secrets of the present . Even he who makes a solution ' Caillaux, condemned by the High-Court, was at the time in the . Sante prison . The article in question was written on the 17th April, 1925 .

224 THE OCCULT SCIENCES for himself alone places himself without knowing it into a particular psychic state which, according to his receptivity, gives him likewise a sort of divinatory power . Further, if the cards do not tell us the future, we must admit that they give us warnings . Therefore, taking their indications into account, let us be on our guard if they foretell a peril . And on the other hand let us not buy any of the pamphlets on Cartomancy of which there are so many, as there are on the Language of Flowers, and on Keys to Dreams . Cartomancy has a Tradition . In the following pages we have respected it . III Meanings of the Individual Cards .

(Piquet Pack)

SUITS

Hearts relate to matters of family, friendship and love . Diamonds deal with business undertakings, journeys, messages. Spades denote suffering, sorrows, mournings, betrayals. Clubs indicate money matters. HEARTS

Ace (Upright) . Family happiness .-(Reversed) troubles and quarrels . King (U.) A sympathetic man, generally fair.-(R .) Not very easy to get on with . Queen (U.) Pleasant and virtuous woman, generally fair .-(R .) Obstacles in love . Jack (U.) Loyal and good young man.-(R .) His thought . Ten (U.) Love, work.-(R.) Pleasant surprise . Nine (U.) Content, success, harmony.-(R.) Hindrances, worries. Eight (U.) Visit or present:(R.) Auburn young woman, great pleasure. Seven (U.) Thought of the client or of a loved being . (R.) Their desire or their will. DIAMONDS

Ace (U.) Letter, business documents .-(R .) Unpleasant letter. King (U.) Protector, soldier, useful man . Marriage with adjoining queen of diamonds.-(R .) Obstacles . A foreigner or a man from the country. Queen (U.) Thoughtless harmful woman (stranger) generally fair . (R.) Woman from the country or gossiping .

CARTOMANCY 225 Jack (U.) Soldier, postman (letter certain).-(R .) Disagreeable letter or upsetting news . Ten (U.) Journey.-(R .) Delay or change. Nine (U.) New business .-(R .) Delay. Eight (U .) Excursion into the country or hunting .-(R .) Delay, worries, business . Seven (U). Mocking thought or present .-(R.) Upsets, quarrel . If next to the client, strengthens the omens . SPADES

Ace (U.) Business or sentimental proposal, lawsuit .-(R .) Love forsaken . King (U.) Lawyer or judge .-(R .) Widower, spiteful man . Bother. Queen (U.) Widow or divorcee (dark) .-(R .) Widow wishing to remarry . Difficulties and disturbances . Jack (U.) Dark young man .-(R .) Treacherous or envious young man. Betrayal in love. Ten (U.) Tears, jealousy, worries, letters.-(R .) Bad news, loss of money Nine (U.) Mourning, obstacle, priest, ruin, illness, pain .-(R.) Strengthens the omen . Eight (U.) Bad news, sorrow.(R.) Mystical ideas . Seven (U.) Worry. Thought of a serious person .-(R.) Indecision, failure . CLUBS

Ace (U.) Lucky speculation .-(R .) A present . King (U.) Dark useful man.-(R .) Sick dark man. Queen (U.) Dark rich loving woman .-(R .) Loving but flighty woman . Jack (U.) Dark young man very much in love .-(R .) Angry or sick young man . Ten (U.) Big sum to win or big business .-(R .) Love and money. Nine (U.) Rich marriage or biggish sum of money .-(R .) A present . Eight (U.) Dark young woman or small sum of money .-(R .). Dark lady without money . Seven (U.) Dark child or very small sum of money .-(R) Money tightness. It would be a mistake to think that a card can be interpreted in a thousand ways, for this would mean that it is fantastic and without interest . We must as far as possible keep to tradition which is borne out by empiricism .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES Daguesah gives the following data about the four suits :Hearts denote joy, pleasure, happiness, harmony, hope fulfilled . If reversed, they are merely less emphatic and denote delays and obstacles . Diamonds are less happy omens-rather unpleasant letters, disagreements, lack of harmony . Spades are generally bad . Cubs speak of money, of business. Reversed, they bring difficulties . To sum up, the red cards relate to affairs of the heart, generally better with the hearts and bad with the diamonds ; clubs relate to material affairs ; spades are bad omens. IV

Meanings of Groups or Juxtapositions

4 8 2 4 4 4 8 2 4 4 2 4 8 2 4 8 2

BY NUMBER kings-support, honours, success . Obstacles if one or more reversed . kings-support, but less powerful . kings-good advice . One reversed, lack of harmony ; both reversed, entanglements . queens-gossip and scandal ; 8-criticism and small scandal ; 2-curiosity. (It is always understood that cards reversed strengthen in an unlucky sense) . jacks-battles ; 3-quarrels ; 2-discussions . tens-fortunate change of position . tens-money tightness, loss of lawsuit. tens-unexpected repayment of money . nines-unexpected luck ; 3-success in enterprises . eights-worries ; 8-support from the family (reversed, the contrary) . eights-declaration of love (reversed-don't accept it) . sevens-enemies (reversed-they will fail) . sevens-birth in the family (reversed-abandonment, sorrow) . sevens-irresistible love (reversed-the chosen one will deceive) . aces-triumph (reversed-obstacles to this triumph) . aces-excess of kindness (reversed-beware of an abuse of confidence) . aces-intended marriage (reversed-broken off) .

BY POSITION The cards, favourable or unfavourable, show their meaning by their position .

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If the client is a dark woman, represented by the Queen of Clubs :Near a King of the same suit, followed by a Heart-marriage of inclination . Near a King of the same suit, followed by a Club-marriage for money . If the client is a fair woman, represented by the Queen of Hearts Surrounded by Jacks-small love affairs . If it is a man :Queen and King near him-certain marriage . If the client is elderly (King of Clubs or of Hearts, of Spades in the case of a widower) :Queen of Spades next to him-remarriage (if he has already been married) . Client surrounded by Clubs-money ; by Hearts-love ; by Spades -illness . King (client) near a Queen of Diamonds-intrigues . King (client) near a nine of Spades-illness (serious if a ten of Spades is on the other side) . King (client) near the ten of Diamonds-coming journey . King (client) near the Queen of the same suit-marriage in prospect . King (client) near a Queen close by -a Heart-friendship . King (client) near a Queen close by two sevens-irresistible passion . Queens of Diamonds and Spades surrounded by Hearts-their spite will be foiled . Queens of Diamonds and of Spades surrounded by Clubs-they try to harm you . Queen of Diamonds near a Jack of Spades-betrayal . Jack near a Queen of Hearts-small love affair (if there is a King nearmarriage) . Jack near the King-protection . Jack of Spades near the Jack of Diamonds-look after the servants. Ten of Diamonds near a red eight-journey by sea . A ten near the ten of Diamonds-legacy from a distant relative . Nine and eight of Spades close together-serious illness . Neighbourhood of a nine of Spades-serious worry . Neighbourhood of a nine of Diamonds-delay . Eight of Diamonds near a Heart-short journey . Eight of Diamonds near a Club-journey of interest . Seven of Diamonds near a Spade-serious anger . Seven of Diamonds near a Club-anger due to a money matter . Seven of Diamonds near a Jack of Spades or a Queen of Diamonds-betrayal of love. Ace of Spades near a seven of Diamonds-proposal which will annoy you . Ace of Spades near eight of Spades-disappointment . Ace of Spades near a nine of Spades-abandonment . Ace of Diamonds near a ten of Diamonds-letter from abroad . Ace of Diamonds near a seven of Diamonds-anger . Ace of Diamonds near a nine of Spades-illness . Many Court Cards-large gathering at which you will be present .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES V A Method of Reading the Cards .

(Pack of 32)

There are several methods of reading the cards . We will confine ourselves to one, the most usual, which was supplied to us by a good cartomancer. Shuffle and have cut by the client with his left hand . Spread the whole pack fanwise and face downwards, and let the client draw with his left hand 18 cards which he hands to the operator . The latter takes them in the same order, and gathering the remaining 19 cards into a pack, puts them on one side and spreads the 18 drawn cards fanwise and face upwards . Having done this, find out where is the card of the client, which is the King of Hearts for a fair man, the King of Clubs for a dark man, the Queen of Clubs for a dark married woman, the Queen of Spades for a widow, the Queen of Hearts for a fair woman or a young woman . If none of these cards is present, take the thought of the client, which is the seven corresponding to one of the above cards . After this count in fives starting from the client, and taking care that each new starting point shall be the fifth card counting from the preceding start, so that in reality there shall be only three cards in each space . Each of the cards so arrived at is read, that is to say, it receives its traditional meaning . All the cards are therefore interpreted . The client then draws 5 further cards from the 19 remaining in the pack, and with these covers those 5 cards in the fan as to which he wants more information . The operator then takes the cards of the fan two by two, one from each end and reads them in conjunction . One card, the middle one, remains, as to which nothing is said . The 18 cards are reshuffled and stacked in three packs, the first card forming the base of the first pack, the second the base of the second pack, the third the base of the third pack, the fourth being placed on the first pack, the fifth on the second pack, etc . The client chooses one pack for himself, one for his house and one for his surprise . Taking up each pack and spreading it fanwise, the cards are again read in relation to their new positions, and the client thus obtains about himself, his house and his unknown destiny (the surprise pack) the details which he wished for .

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VI Some Kinds of Solutions THE PACKS Shuffle, mix, cut or have cut with the left hand . Take the cards one by one and make eight packs of four each, face downwards, except the last of each pack which is placed face upwards. Take up two by two the cards of the same value, two aces, two tens, etc . Turn up the cards which were below the cards taken up, and start again . Success if you take up all the cards . Failure if any cards remain in the packs. THE ACES Draw or have drawn anyhow 13 cards from a pack of 82 well shuffled and cut. Take out the aces found in these 18 cards and put them on one side . Brilliant success if the 4 aces should be in these 18 cards . If they are not all there, reshuffle, recut, and have 18 cards drawn . Medium success if they all come out the second round, good if they only come out the third round, failure if they have not not all come out in the third round . THE DIVINER 1 After having well shuffled a pack of 82 cards, cut or have it cut with the left hand . Imagine four lines one below the other, each corresponding to one suit . There will thus be the line of Hearts, the line of Diamonds, the line of Spades, the line of Clubs . The sequence of the lines does not matter, so long as they are remembered . Take the cards as they come and place them, face upwards, 8 in each line The client indicates a card haphazard . This is picked up and put in its proper place, the sevens being at the left and the cards going in proper sequence from the seven to the ace . When putting it in its place, the card which was there is in its turn picked up, put in its proper place, and a third card is picked up . And so on until the last card picked up and put in its proper place shows the success of the attempt . 1 It is also called the Discovery . It is said to be the one which Marie-Antoinette persistently played in the prison of the Temple .

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THE MAGICIAN Holding the pack face upwards, put down the first card calling it 7, the second card 8, the third 9, and so on up to the ace ., Beginning again, call the ninth card 7, the tenth 8, the eleventh 9 and so on . Each time the card thrown down and the card called correspond, the card is put on one side . Go on until all the cards have been put down . Then pick up the cards which did not correspond (without shuffling them) and go on calling. Success is very rare . THE SEVENS This may be played with the cards face upwards or face downwards . With the cards face upwards, take one by one the cards from the top of a shuffled and cut pack, and place them in rows, 7 cards in the first row, 6 in the second, 5 in the third, the second row partly covering the first, the third partly covering the second, and so on, there being thus seven rows, with 7 cards in the first and one in the seventh This makes 28 cards, 4 remaining in the hand . Having thus laid out the cards, it is necessary, in order to succeed, to free the aces and make up the cards into four packs, one of Hearts, one of Diamonds, one of Spades, one of Clubs, the ace being at the bottom, followed by the 7, 8, etc ., up to the King. One means only is allowed to obtain this result, that is to move one uncovered card (there are 7 at the start) and to place it on a card immediately above in value and of another colour (a red ten on a black Jack, a black Queen on a red King, a black eight on a red nine, etc .), if there is one available . If one comes to a stop, the cards in the hand may be called upon to get out of the difficulty . When these four cards are exhausted without the four packs having been formed from the cards which have become available, there is failure . With the cards face downwards, the process is the same, but only the last card in each row is placed face upwards. As the remaining cards are hidden, it is not known where the aces are, but it is allowed to move a whole column the head of which is available for placing on another uncovered card (e.g., if a visible column consists of a series, red Jack, black ten, red nine, black eight, and the last card of another column is a black Queen, it is allowed to move the whole column on to the Queen. One column being thus free, another card may be placed there from the foot of another column, the last card of which may then be turned up . This gives more freedom of movement) . These two solutions do not often succeed, and they require attention

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hence their double interest . A wish should be made before beginning, failure indicating that the wish will not come true . Large numbers of •t hese• so lutions• m ight be • given and are quoted by Daguesah. But we look upon them mainly as a pastime, a drawingroom game, and consequently we do not think we should, in a serious book dealing with the Occult Sciences, spend much time on these amusements where the reality of prediction, if it exists at all, is infinitesimal . VII

Taroc We shall in this book consider Taroc twice . The first time, here, from the point of view of Cartomancy . The second time, in the second part, we shall, in addition to its history, discuss it from the point of view of its philosophical, or rather kabbalistic, symbolism . At present, therefore, let us, without discussion, examine the Taroc cards from the point of view of playing cards . A pack of Taroc consists of 78 cards, 22 being called major arcana and 56 minor arcana, divided into 4 series, each having its own colour, and called rods, cups, swords, pence. The group of major arcana consists of symbols which we shall describe below . The group of minor arcana consists of 40 hieroglyphics and 16 Court cards . In each series therefore there are 14 cards, viz ., 10 hieroglyphics and 4 Court cards . The Figures on the rods and the swords represent dark persons, those on the cups and the pence fair persons . The following are the individual meanings of the 78 cards and leaves of Taroc . These are as given in the Daguesah. There are others, particularly those taught by Etteilla, the pictures of which are not the same as those described below . 1 MAJOR CARDS

The Juggler.-Change of position, soon if the card is upright, long and difficult if it is reversed .

The Popess.-Against the client a cruel, malevolent and unbalanced woman, who, if reversed, will cause worries .

The Empress .-Fertility and happiness at home . But reversed, she denotes disunion, serious or passing, according to the cards which are near .

t It is a pity that there is not in Taroc, as in ttie ordinary playing cards, a definite type which could easily be set up through a combination of the various traditional types .

232

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The Pope.-This card represents man, strength . Upright it denotes loyalty which gives the courage to escape from temptation . Reversed it counsels distrust ; beware of deceivers and intriguers . The Lover.-The symbol of chaos, of indecision, of obscurity . Placed between a King and a Queen, it announces a marriage, but if it is reversed, the break of a union . The Chariot .-This was the Initiate, he who knows, be who is . Announces great honour for the client . If reversed, the client will be unhappy at home . Justice .-Success in business matters, the winning of a lawsuit . If reversed -great disappointment . The Hermit .-Some one is seeking to harm you, but the spitefulness at work against you will fail. If reversed, it means the opposite . The Wheel of Fortune.-The best sign of luck in Taroc . Reversed, it indicates delays. Strength.-Success through work, perseverance, will-power . Reverseddisgrace; cares . The Hanged Man.-You sacrifice yourself too much . And if this card is reversed, the sacrifice is useless. Death.-Upright or reversed, it is a bad omen . Do not undertake anything for the moment. Temperance.-Fortunate omen . Rich marriage for the client . Reversed, thoughtlessness which may be harmful . The Devil:Temptation to evil, irresistible if the card is reversed . The Madhouse .-Accident, shipwreck, unexpected misfortune . The sign of events which will surprise you . If near the pence, you will have a legacy. If reversed, beware of the lightning . The Star.-This is the influence of the stars on your birth . This card reversed is the sign of the near conclusion of a business . The Moon .-Obscurity, unclear business . If reversed, be careful in your undertakings . The Sun .--Early clearing up . Happy omen. If reversed, do not worry. Judgment.-You will succeed in everything. Reversed, do not act without advice . The Madman.-A thoughtless act may play you a bad trick . If reversed, black thoughts . The World .-If well surrounded, there is nothing to fear, especially if Justice or the Emperor are near. Reversed, difficulties to overcome .

MINOR CARDS

THE TENS Ten of Rods.-Strange town . Tempest . Reversed-spitefulness which will fail . Ten of Cups .-Success . The town in which the client lives . Reversed, a rich marriage . If this ten is next to the seven of rods, slander .

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Ten of Swords .--Sorrow, melancholy, cares, lack of money . Reversed, wealth, success. Ten of Pence.-Announces some money . Placed near the chariot a legacy . Reversed next to the ace of cups, festivity or family ceremony . THE NINES

Nine of Rods .-Illness, delay in business matters . Reversed near the Emperor, benignant illness . Nine of Cups .-Honour, success, gain . Reversed near the eight of pence, plans upset . Nine of Swords .-Great disappointment . Prudence necessary . Reversed, you will be present at a marriage. For the client it will break a union if the nine reversed is next to him . Nine of Pence.-Certainty of success . Reversed, beware of a bad joker ; near the Madman, plots . THE EIGHTS

Eight of Rods .-Journey . For an unmarried person, prospect of marriage . Reversed near a pence card, worry ; near sword, care, falseness. Eight of Cups .-Happiness for a young girl, or marriage with a fair woman . Reversed, success of a projected union . Eight of Swords .-Discussion, possibility of a duel . For a soldier, fighting . Reversed, spiteful proposals . Eight of Pence.-Good position ; brilliant future . Reversed, success with women for a bachelor ; for a lady client, worldly success . THE SEVENS

Seven of Rods.-Silly chatter. Reversed near the three of cups, fire . Seven of Cups .-Unhoped for favour . Reversed, charitable mind . Seven of Swords.-Success in all undertakings . For a married woman, several children. Reversed, a lawsuit concerning a legacy. Seven of Pence .-Reflection, prudence in business matters . Near the wheel of fortune, big legacy. Reversed, happy marriage . THE SIxEs

Six of Rods .-Obstacle to plans . Reversed, betrayal by a friend ; but near the eight of cups, success over enemies . Six of Cups .-New acquaintances who will cause worry . Reversed, rivalry . Six of Swords.-Journey. Near a card of pence, great ambition . Reversed, legacy from a relative. Six of Pence .--Contested legacy. Reversed, unexpected and powerful protection.

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES THE FIVES

Five ofRods .-Anger. If this card is near the four of rods, great gain . Reversed, winning of a lawsuit (certain if the King of Swords is near it) . Five of Cups.-Lucky card . Important inheritance . Reversed, brilliant marriage . Five of Swords .-Theft at home, lies . Reversed, ceremony at which you will be present . Five of Pence .-Unexpected gain . Reversed, find on the public road .

THE FOURS

Four of Rods.-Stay in the country . Increase of wealth. If reversed, a birth . Four of Cups.-Great upset . Reversed, a pleasant meeting. Four of Swords.-The client will have mystic thoughts . Reversed, ruin. Four of Pence.-Gain in a lottery, money will be invested . Reversed, you will overcome difficulties .

THE THREES

Three of Rods.-The client will become famous or rich . Reversed, difficulties . Near the Juggler, betrayal by a friend . Three of Cups.-Success ; for an artist, great renown ; for an author, success ; for an officer, brilliant future ; for a woman, unhoped-for success . Reversed, fall ; accident . Three of Swords .-Great disillusion . Reversed, divorce or marriage broken off ; bad omen, false and lying lover . Three of Pence .-Unexpected business proposal . Reversed, a proposal of this kind will not be accepted .

THE Twos

Two of Rods .-Jealousy, heartache . Reversed, unhoped-for joy . Two of Cups.Wealth, but avarice . Reversed, unexpected success . Two of Swords.-Valuable present . Reversed-friendship of a rich and generous person. Two of Pence.-Undertaking which will turn out badly. Reversed, great discussion . Ace Ace Ace Ace

THE ACES

of Rods.Near the two of cups-calumny . Reversed, abandonment . of Cups .-Will which will overcome . Near the Queen, happy news . Reversed, happy inspiration . of Swords .-C atastrophe, ruin. Reversed, help in distress. of Pence.-If this card comes out first, it foretells such happiness that it overcomes all other cards and destroys all bad influence . Near the Wheel of Fortune, immense wealth . Reversed, smaller fortune .

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THE SQUIRES

Squire of Rods .-Pleasant news . Near the Queen of Rods, brilliant marriage ; near the Wheel of Fortune, lucky speculation . Reversed, modest happiness . Squire of Cups.-Great esteem . Devotion on the part of friend . Reversed, present . Squire of Swords .-Betrayal by a friend of rivalry in love . Reversed, pleasant surprise. Squire of Pence . For a lady, conquest of a rich man who will make her happy . Reversed, disorder ; money squandered . THE KNIGHTS

Knight of Rods .-Money ; fortunate change of position . Reversed, money borrowed . Knight of Cups.-Visit, pleasant invitation. Reversed, crookedness . Knight of Swords.-Beware of attack or slander. Reversed, quarrel, disunion in the family. Knight of Pence .-Thoughtless conduct which, in a woman, will cause worries and in a young man will have serious consequences. Reversed, an opportunity which you will miss . THE QUEENS

Queen of Rods .-Woman possessing great qualities . Happy marriage with a dark lady. Reversed, a happy old age . Queen of Cups .-Fair or chestnut lady, distinguished, devoted . Reversed, intemperance, misconduct . Queen of Swords.-Widow, forsaken woman . Reversed, do not marry lightly ; solitude. Queen of Pence .-Dark woman, rich heiress . Reversed, this woman has bad health. THE KINGS .-Man who succeeds in business . Sincere friend . King of- Rods King of Cups .-Chivalrous generous lover . For a young man, support . Reversed, you must be careful . King of Swords .-Soldier or judge. For a lady or young girl, beware of a flatterer . Reversed, deceiver. King of Pence-Usurer ; man who may harm you . Reversed, good looking man, but thoughtless and deceiver. In order to consult the Taroc, see the teaching of the Daguesah :It must first be remembered that in general the meaning of the Taroc is intensified or diminished according to whether the card is

236 THE OCCULT SCIENCES near to or far from the client-that man represents action and willpower ; women, indecision, inconstancy or submission ; the knight, a young bachelor ; the squire, activity without initiative ; that the rods, cups, swords and pence correspond to the clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds of an ordinary piquet pack ; finally that the aces react on the cards near by, weakening or strengthening their meaning . Method :-Shuffle and have cut, either three times or seven times, then ask the client to choose first 21 cards which you will place in a half circle, then 5 more cards which you will place like this :-One at the top above the 11th card ; the second at the bottom, underneath ; the third above the fifth card (at the right), the fourth above the fifth card (on the left), that is symmetrically with the preceding ; the fifth on the 11th card, half covering it . Then explain ; read the cards from the right to the left, according to the data just given . After this let the client draw 42 more cards and make them into 7 packs of 6 each . Place these packs into a row, proceeding from the right to the left. Take the first card of each pack and place them in a row from the right to the left . Then take two cards from each pack and make two more rows . There remain 7 packs of 8 cards each. Pick them up starting on the right and leaving them in their order, then make three more rows with them . The total of these rows will make a second figure below the first (the 26 cards of the fan) . Read and explain this second figure from the right to the left . There remain 10 cards in the hand (since you have used 26 + 42 = 68). Without shuffling them, spread and read them ; they will foretell bad luck which can be avoided and good luck which can be brought about. Here is another method, the Italian, which seems to correspond most exactly to the primitive Taroc :1. Shuffle, cut, spread out the whole pack face downwards . Have 22 cards drawn and spread them before you as they are drawn, from the left to the right in three series of seven plus one . The first seven give general information as to the immediate past . The second seven relate to the present, and especially to the actual anxieties of the client . The third seven deal with the immediate future, and the remaining card is the synthetic resultant .

CARTOM ANCY

237 2. Connect the separate meanings of the cards in fives (as was done in the ordinary piquet pack, so that there are three cards between every two consulted), starting from the first on the left . 3 . Reshuffle the whole pack, have it cut and 48 cards drawn which are made up into 12 packs of 4 each, the meaning of each relating to :I. The personality of the client ; II. Money matters ; III. Family relations ; IV . Parents (father, mother and their property) ; V . Love, pleasures, personal satisfaction ; VI. Colleagues, collaborators, current relations ; VII. Marriage, lawsuits ; VIII . Health ; IX. Personal merits and their results ; X. Actual good or bad luck ; XI. Assistance and protection ; XII. Unpleasantnesses and misfortunes .' 4. If it is desired to be more precise, reshuffle, have cut and 15 cards drawn which are spread out from left to right, then 15 more, which are placed in a stack on one side Start the interpretation again, beginning with the first card on the left, in fives as before . Then give the stack of 15 to the client asking him to draw one which he will place on that card spread out which interests him most . This card will give the supreme enlightenment . Finally there is this simpler method given by Papus 2 :1. Take the pack of the minor arcana and separate the suit which relates to the kind of consultation asked for, that is to say the Rods (or Sceptres) for Business matters, the Cups for Love affairs, the Swords for Lawsuits, the Pence for Money questions . 2. Shuffle the cards chosen, . have them cut by the client . 8 . Take the major arcana, shuffle and have them cut, place them without looking in a cross from the left to right as appears below (in ordinary figures) . 8 . Take the minor arcana, shuffle and have them cut, then let seven cards be chosen haphazard which are reshuffled, recut, and from which the three top cards are taken and placed as appears below (in Roman figures) :4 I 11 3 1 III 2 1 The analogy with the twelve houses of the sun mentioned in the Chapter on Astrology will be noticed. ' Let us remember that various serious methods of reading the cards and Taroo are found in the books of Papua, Lemarchand, Julia Orsini, Mme . Clement, Etteilla .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES 4. Then pick up the cards and read their meanings, noting that card 1 indicates the beginning of the problem you are asked to solve ; card 2, its apogee ; card 8, the obstacles to beware of ; card 4, the end of the business ; the major card I, the influence on the question in the past ; card II, the influence at present ; card III, the influence on it in the future . In this simplified method the King represents a Man, without other distinction, the Queen a Woman, the Knight a Young Man, and the Knave a Child .

CHAPTER VI ONIROMANCY I

Antiquity of Oniromancy.

Famous Dreams

ALL nations in all times were struck by the extravagance of dreams, and also by the coincidences which they noticed between the subject matter of their dreams and subsequent events . Therefore at an early date a premonitory value was attached to dreams, wise men began to comment on them, and a special science was born to interpret them . This belief in the revelation of the future by the images of sleep came from the faith in gods who by this means sent to man warnings and counsel . It will thus be seen at once that Oniromancy (from oneiros, dream, and manteia, divination) is connected with intuitive divination, whilst the inductive divination interprets the signs of the thoughts of the gods . We have here an intimate communion with the intellect, a subjective (and not objective, by means of intermediaries) prediction, which is made by the direct coming of celestial light to the mind . This is how Aristotle understood it, whilst admitting that sometimes the language of dreams might be symbolical . Oniromancy is a great realm which may be divided into two territories :-that of the observation of dreams, or Oniroscopy, and that of their interpretation, or Onirocritics . Plutarch and Cicero did not scorn to study it, and following them there are numerous authors from olden times to the present day 1 not to speak of many writers of Keys to Dreams, always drawn up at second hand . One of these Keys, the most famous and extremely old, is that of Artemidorus of Ephesus which has recently been translated and commented on by Mr . Henri Vidal in a beautifully produced book with notes on the author, from which we gather the following information. s 1 See Tylbus, The Mysterious Realm of Dreams (published by Drouin) . The fey to Dreams, by Artemidorus of Ephesus, or The Five Books of the Interpretation Dreams and !'saione, translated from the Greek and commented on by Henri Vidal (Editions e la Sirene, 1921) . 239

240

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Artemidorus was born at Ephesus in the time of Antoninus Pius . He practised Oniromancy in his native city, then a magnificent and famous town, and also Chiromancy, under the name of Artemidorus of Daldia. He had read all the treatises which had up to then appeared dealing with these matters, and had sought his enlightenment from ' Epicharmus, Antiphon, Strabo, Demetrius of Phalera, Apollodorus, Aristarchus, Aristides the magnetiser, Geminus the astrologer, and many others . He added his own experiences and was careful to distinguish between dreams which might have a premonitory value and others . Mr. Vidal also refers to the interesting book which Mr . BoucherLeclercq has ' devoted to the ancient history of the divinatory arts . 1 According to this author Onirocritics is as old as the world . But Jaucourt gives its origin more exactly by tracing it back to the Egyptian priests who were past masters of the art . But it is more probable that dreams have always moved those who had them . Many dreams have become famous, either on account of the position of those who had them, or on account of the events which happened and which are claimed to have been foretold by them . No child who has studied his Bible will have forgotten the dream of Jacob seeing the ladder placed on his breast and rising to the sky, prediction of the high destiny of his race ; the dream of Pharaoh (the seven fat kine and the seven lean kine) which Joseph interpreted as the approach of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and so many others in which Jehovah appeared to Moses and the Prophets . More especially in the Gospels he will remember the angel foretelling to the carpenter Joseph the supernatural motherhood of Mary, and the other angel who warned him to fly into Egypt so as to escape the Massacre of the Innocents, and the wife of Pilate excited by dreams which drove her to beg her husband to save Christ, etc . Independently of the well known dreams of Athaly and Belshazzar, it was in a dream that the mother of Virgil knew by seeing laurels that she would give birth to a poet, in a dream that Brutus saw a threatening spectre foretelling his defeat on the eve of the battle of Philippi, in a dream that Calpurnia, the wife of Caesar, foresaw the murder of her august husband, in a dream that Catherine de Medici saw the tournament in which her husband lost his life, in a dream that Henri II of France heard a voice predicting exactly the wound to his eye which would come soon, in a dream that the Princesse de Conde was present in anticipation at the battle of Jarnac in which her son was to perish, in a dream that Madame Roland knew the death of her 1 Published by Ernest Ledoux, 1879 .

ONIROMANCY 241 mother, and that Madame de la Bedolliere saw the man she was to marry and whom she did not know . Here are some other remarkable dreams :The celebrated astronomer Flammarion told" Madame de Thebes that a traveller of the name of Berard saw in a dream, at an inn where he put up, all the details of a murder which was to be committed later when the lawyer V . Arnaud was killed in the room in which he slept, thanks to which dream it was possible to discover the body (in the barn) and to arrest the murderers . The Italian chronicler, Paul Jove (XVIth Century) relates in his Histories that a certain Captain Sforza dreamt of a river in which he tripped and was nearly drowned, after having in vain asked the help of a person dressed like St . Christopher, who was on the shore . On the morrow, as he was crossing the Peschara at the head of his troops, he saw one of his pages who had got away from the ford by which the army was crossing, and who was being carried away by the current . He ran to his assistance, but was in his turn carried off by the rapid tide . Thus he perished after having the preceding night foreseen the danger which he told to his companions in arms without attaching any importance to it . So also Louis de Bourbon, the Conde who was mixed up in the religious wars, being one of the chiefs of the Protestant Party, dreamt some time after the battle of Dreux that he was fighting three others and winning them, but that he met his death amongst the corpses of his enemies, the Marshal de Saint-Andre and the Due de Guise . And the Marshal was in fact killed soon after at Dreux, the Duke at Orleans and the Prince himself at Bassac . It is true that in those troublous times it was fairly safe to foretell a death in war. Yet it remains that this particular one seems to have been foreseen in a dream . At the time of the siege of Chio (1431) the Genoese Grimani one day told his friends that in his sleep he had seen an enormous serpent crawling towards him to swallow him . He concluded that a violent death threatened their comrade, and advised him not to take part in the fighting . A sortie taking place, Grimani confined himself to following the soldiers at a distance, then, hiding behind the ramparts, he put his eye to a loophole, when at the same moment a ball struck him and killed him . Three days before being killed by Jacques Clement, King Henri III of France saw in a dream all the royal insignia bloodstained and trodden under foot by monks and by the mob . John Funger of Leovarde relates a dream which in its result was a strange godsend for the dreamer . A young man of Dordrecht, an 1

In his book, The Riddle of the Dream.

242 THE OCCULT SCIENCES orphan and loaded with debts, no longer knew how to get out of his difficulties, when in a dream he was advised to go to Kempen, where he would find the solution of all his troubles . The latter town was a long way off . Nevertheless our Dutchman went there, and walked about all day, waiting in vain for the promised solution . Worried and staring at the ground in front of him, he met on the bridge of the town a beggar who asked him what was worrying him . The young man, who had nothing to do, told him his story, related his dream and confessed the purpose of his journey. The-beggar smiled and was astonished that any one should take such a long journey for so little . " If I took any notice of such rubbish," he added, " I should only have to go very quickly to Dordrecht, from where you come, and find a garden which has also been described to me in a dream, and where there is a treasure buried under a rosebush. But rather than do such a silly thing I prefer two days' receipts on this bridge where passers-by give me alms." To this the beggar added various details from which our Dutchman learnt that the garden in question was nothing more or less than the garden of his own father who had recently died and whose fortune he had just wasted . Appearing, like the beggar, to attach no importance to dreams, he chatted a few moments longer, and without further delay returned to Dordrecht . He walked all night and arrived towards morning, tired out, but buoyed with lively hope. Without taking any rest he hastened towards the garden which he knew so well, started digging at the foot of the rosebush and found there in a cashbox such a quantity of gold coins that he was able to repay the money which he had borrowed and to live, a wiser man, happily to the end of his days . The violinist and musical theorist Giuseppe Tartini (18th century) claims that it is to a dream that he owes his famous composition of which the title The Devil's Sonata recalls the origin. He had begun it in a burst of inspiration, but could knot manage to finish it . Tired of seeking, he fell asleep, obsessed by his subject . In his dream he saw himself again tied down to his ungrateful task, despairing of ever carrying it through . Suddenly the devil appeared to him and offered, in exchange for his soul, to finish the sonata . No artist consumed by the fire of genius would refuse to make such an exchange to enable him to create a masterpiece . Without haggling Tartini agreed to the bargain, whereupon he heard with the greatest delight the devil play on his violin the notes he wanted . Waking up, he ran to his desk, wrote down what he had just heard and took up his violin . The sonata unrolled itself complete and entirely in accordance with his desire . It is quite possible that in those days of faith the composer may have thought that he saw the image of Satan disturb his slumbers, but we must also remember that it is a common experience that " the night

ONIROMANCY 243 brings counsel," and that it has often happened that mathematicians, amongst others, have found in the morning the solution of a problem which troubled them the night before . II A Little Study on Dreams Are dreams in reality prophetic ? We have all known coincidences in this respect which were at least disturbing and striking . Let us add that some scientists have believed (Franklin for instance) and still believe in dreams as a warning, at least to some extent . On the other hand there are certain cases where the dream foreboding can easily be understood . How many wives of fishermen, for instance, see in their sleep their husbands being shipwrecked, when alas, that same night the men are engulfed by a fate which is only too common to seafarers . But do they not forget these same dreams when nothing happens ? Nevertheless let us remember, following Paul Jagot, that if in some psycho-physical conditions (especially in hypnosis) the human being shows himself apt to foresee future events, similarly it is not extraordinary that sleep should sometimes be accompanied by a premonitory sensitiveness in which images seen transform themselves into a more or less vaguely symbolical form. On the other hand Thylbus remarks in his Realm of Dreams, that they are predictive barely once in a hundred times . These visions of the night are often due, as we shall see presently, to the state of the body, or to a physical sensation perceived during sleep, 1 or to a contribution from the immense reservoir of our recollections, or to a repressed desire (Freud's theory) . Therefore, before opening a Key to Dreams, try to find out by a careful analysis what it is that may have given rise to the dream which disturbed you . It is only in cases where it seems inexplicable that it may possibly have any premonitory value . Before studying the causes of dreams let us quote the pretty legend of their origin, according to an Arab tale told by the Countess Tady •The Dreams one day took ship with their father Sleep for an enchanted isle . But the latter, having offended the God of Tempests by giving a peaceful rest to some sailors whom that bellowing deity 1 Experiments by Hervey de Saint-Dens and Maury . For instance a bottle of scent put before a sleeper induced the vision of a perfumer's shop in Cairo ; a few strokes on a triangle gave him the thought of a town where the alarm-bell was ringing, etc .

244 THE OCCULT SCIENCES was pursuing with his fury, in his turn saw contrary winds revenging themselves of his kindness, and cast him on an inhospitable shore where there was nothing to save from Boredom. But the power of the Master of Storms ceased with the twilight, when began the reign of the Moon and Night . Then the father of the Dreams, taking pity on the sorrow of his children, allowed them to escape as soon as night fell. That is why, with the coming of the Shadows, the Dreams take their flight and bring haphazard, according to their several characters, to some sweet illusion, to others the obsession of nightmare . The Egyptians called the dreams Mysterious Messengers, for they took them to be sent by the Goddess Isis who, with the aid of Serapis, thus sent warnings and counsel . But let us come to more serious explanations . In the opinion of occultists, the separation of the being into the material " self " and the psychical or astral " self " rarely takes place in a state of wakefulness, but more often during sleep . And if they see in dreams a kind of presentiment or telepathy, this is, they say, because the soul during sleep more than during wakefulness is freed from the heavy weight of the material body, and thus is more easily able to communicate with the spiritual world . Scientists, on the other hand, at least the materialists who despise every hypothesis which does not use the scalpel, explain dreams by the rush of the blood to the head, allow them only physiological causes, and say they are the result of the nervous system acting on itself without communicating with the outside world, sleep, by suspending at least in part the exercise of certain faculties (attention, will-power, judgment) releasing the control of all the images and thoughts which imagination brings to the mind without co-ordination (hence incoherence) . It cannot be denied that physiological conditions affect dreams, and the ancients were well aware of this, for before accepting signs, they took into account the functioning of the organs, the position of the sleeper during his sleep (which had to avoid any compression of the liver, the mirror of true dreams), the hour, the day and the season (autumn and winter, in their opinion, being not very good times) . This is why, following the Arab physician Ibn Sirin (who lived in the eighth century B.c.), Moreau de la Sarthe and Maine de Biran distinguish two classes of dreams the intuitive (independent of any diseased or special state, and the only ones of interest to Oniromancy) and the affective or organic (connected with special conditions, pathological or other, and due to them, as for instance of cold, sleeper dreaming of snow, etc .) Let us go into some detail as to each of these categories .

ONIROMANCY 245 As we said, the intuitive dreams are the only ones which have any connection with divinatory science . Even then it is perhaps going too far to believe that " the gods " busy themselves with our petty affairs to the extent of giving us their advice in this manner, and it may be disturbing to see the contradictions existing between the various " keys to dreams " which are offered to our eagerness to know the future . And besides, how many thousands of dreams have never seen their predictions fulfilled 1 Yet Madame de Thebes replies :-(I) The contradictions between the various keys are only seemingly so ; the signs are never clear, and their interpretation varies according to colour, juxtaposition, or the sequence of images in a contrary direction . Thus one key may say that a dog seen in a dream is a lucky omen, another that it is unlucky ; but good luck is foretold only if the dog is white, for a grey one foretells misfortune, a black one ruin, a red one discord or war (red-martian token) . (2) On the other hand, these indications vary according to the planetary type of the person interested, the astral influences acting on the whole of his life . For instance the dream of a serpent, dangerous to the Jupiterian, only foretells worry to the Saturnian, and whilst stagnant water is hostile to the former, this same water to the lunar type promises joy and wealth . (3) Finally the contradictions in question, even if real, may be explained by different interpretations being given by different nations, some having thought that certain signs were to them bad omens, whereas for others they were favourable . Let us also remember the peregrinations of' the elements of Oniromancy :-the Greeks borrowed them from the Egyptians and the Chaldeans before transmitting them to the Romans who in their turn brought them to us by conquest . And do we not observe also that groups of superstitions change their character according to whether they are rife in the North or in the South ? We have said that occultists saw in dreams a kind of presentiment or telepathy, which is the faculty of seeing at a distance and without the aid of the senses . By the laws of determinism, events concerning each one of us are undoubtedly always in preparation in the vast field of the invisible world ; they are in some way in a condition of germination as the seed is at the bottom of a furrow . But it happens in the spiritual world as it happens in the physical world, and all forebodings do not come true-just as all seeds cast into the furrow do not blossom . Reasons of which sometimes we are unaware, and which sometimes are the result of our will-power warned by the dream, arrest or precipitate the events on their course . And Madame de Thebes, so celebrated owing to the thousands of dreams which she interpreted during her consultations, and who with the fugue of a faith which seems so convinced wrote her well-

246

THE OCCULT SCIENCES known Riddle of the Dream, loyally shows her prudence when she writes :" No absolute certainty must be founded on the interpretation of dreams . A line must be drawn between science and fancy, and we must admit that dreams are reminiscences or the reflection of preoccupatiot"?~ ra ' r than predictions. . . . We must not take keys to dreams like words c,. Gospel . All that we can say on the subject of the mysterious future, the search into which has been of passionate interest to the human soul since there have been human beings, will never be based except on hypotheses and on coincidences ." And after having honestly warned in this way those who offered her large fees for the interpretation of their dreams, she adds these delightful lines, borrowed in part from the Great Encyclopaedia, which shall serve as conclusion to this passage on intuitive dreams :"The Ancients claimed that it was possible, by recipes, by amulets, by prayers and by drawings, to regulate one's dreams, to procure sweet and pleasant ones and to avoid unpleasant ones . For this purpose they specially advised the placing of a branch of laurel near the head . Would you like some advice on this matter I Sweet dreams arise naturally from a peaceful heart and an easy conscience ; the wicked man has no pleasant dreams . Do good to all, love and devote yourself, and your nights will be full of pleasant recollections and dreams. Do not read at night dark or terrifying pages which will reproduce themselves in equally horrible images . Go to sleep on pleasant thoughts and you will have pleasant dreams ." To close this subject on quite a modern note, let us draw attention to the enquiry made by the Petit Journal (May, 1925) into " Modern Sorcerers," or rather present day occult happenings (which would be a better title) by Messrs . Marcel Nadaud and Maurice Pelletier, the article of the latter being headed " In the Realm of Dreams " (19th May) . We find there at length the story of a peasant in Burgundy whom they knew during the war . It was a man of the name of Antoine Maugras, looked upon as a simpleton, who learnt during his sleep various coming events, a birth, news of which arrived by letter three days later, an order, which in fact came at the hour mentioned, etc. Alas, in the same way Maugras knew two days beforehand that he would die in the attack of the 7th July, 1915 . Another curious fact was that his wife had a similar gift of prediction . We have here evidently a phenomenon which combined the strange fact of premonitory dreams and the strange fact of certain presentiments . It should be added that the wife of Maugras died on the same day as her husband . As to the affective or organic dreams which are caused in a definite

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and natural manner by the pathological condition of some organ, they possess an interest which is practical and can often be checked . They belie the saying that every dream is but a lie, for they may possibly reveal to the dreamer some evil of which he had no suspicion . And if he will follow our advice, he will in these particular cases at once call on his doctor to be examined . And then he will be able to say that in truth his dreams were for him warning gods to whom perhaps he owes his salvation . Larousse, who generally is not very favourably disposed towards anything which touches the supernatural-far from it-is yet compelled to bow before the evidence . And on this subject he says the following :The slightest indissositions as well as the most serious illnesses may give rise to dreams. Unfortunately their semeiological value is very uncertain ; we do not know their connection with the seat and the nature of the various affections which they accompany . All that we do know is that, during sleep, the pathological labour which goes on in the depths of the organism induces dreams which are in more or less direct relation with the affected organ . This is so true that they may sometimes raise suspicions as to an illness which is not revealed by anything during a state of wakefulness . To give some instances. Organic affections of the heart or the large veins are sometimes announced before their obvious occurrence by painful dreams or nightmares followed by sorrowful presentiments . If they are frequently repeated, they may be looked upon as symptoms foretelling a serious lesion which it is already very difficult if not impossible to prevent . When this has become actual, the dreams are very short ; they occur mostly during the first sleep and are quickly followed by waking up with a start . Combined with them there is always or almost always the fear of an early death in tragical circumstances . According to the observations of various doctors, spontaneous haemorrhages, the result of 4,n abnormal congestive rush of blood to the head, are sometimes foretold by red dreams of fire or of murderous sights . The more these dreams are accentuated and detailed, the more they must be taken into consideration . It is especially during the prodromic period of neurosis and of mental alienation that they are found of such a bizarre and extraordinary character as to arouse the suspicions of a doctor . Madness, before showing itself definitely, very often reveals itself by terrible nightmares of the worst omen . The same phenomena accompany illness more often than they precede it . Fever-stricken persons sometimes feel the most dreadful thirst, and drea ;;, that they cannot slake it . People have been known to dream that they had 'u iq cut off or turned to stone, and have wakened up paralysed, or become so `, flays later . Cold in an organ or its prolonged compression are sometimes accompanied by the same sensations . The scientist Gessner dreams that he is bitten in the side by a serpent, and very soon recognises in the same spot the signs of an anthrax which will carry him off in five days . Arnauld de Villeneuve dreams that he is bitten in the foot by a viper and soon sees it

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES

stricken with a cancerous ulcer . As will be seen from these examples, nearly all these dreams, related to various morbid states, are nightmares . In melancholia dreams are habitually sad and oppressive . Sometimes those who have them wake up wet with perspiration and bathed in tears . In the case of expansive monomania dreams are gay and smiling ; in mania, odd, bizarre, without order ; in dementia and imbecility, rare and transient . Of all diseases those which induce the most terrifying nightmares are the affections of the heart, of the great vessels of the brain and of the organs of respiration . This is as far as Western science will go in this matter ; Eastern physicians go a little farther . Hindu and Chinese medicine for centuries has been looking to dreams for information as to the diagnosis of illness . In their system dreams are divided into five classes which correspond to the five great viscera :-the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, the spleen and the liver . Each class is sub-divided according to two normal conditions of the organ . The normal condition of all these organs induces no dreams of any kind . These principles having been stated, the following gives, as an example of this Asiatic science, a summing up of the various dreams which denote the bad functioning of each viscera I. Dream of ghosts, monsters, terrifying figures-sign of bad functioning of the heart (vessels choked), repletion. Dream of fire, flames, smoke, lightsign of bad functioning of the heart (giddiness due to weakness of the blood current and slowing down of the rhythm), inanition . II . Dream of fights, war, weapons, soldiers-sign of bad functioning of the lungs ; repletion. Dream of plains, sea, country, difficult roads and journeys-sign of bad functioning of the heart ; inanition . III . Dream of excessive fatigue, pain in the kidneys-sign of bad functioning of the kidneys ; canals overfull . " "Dream that one is swimming with difficulty and is in danger of drowning-sign of bad functioning of the kidneys ; inanition . IV. Dream of songs, festivities, music, pleasure-sign of bad functioning of the spleen ; repletion of the canals starting from it . Dream of dangers, battle, dispute, meals-sign of bad functioning of the spleen ; inanition. V. Dream of inextricable forests, steep mountains, trees-sign of bad functioning of the liver ; repletion. Dream of grass, lawns, bushes, fieldssign of bad functioning of the liver ; inanition . Finally, dream of brooks, or murmuring springs, of waterfalls, is a sign of anaemia ; and dream of murderers, hanging, strangulation is explained by asthmatic suffocation . It will be seen that this diagnosis by dreams is very similar, in some of its inductions, to that made in similar cases by Western physicians, but it is a little more extended . In any case it is generally recognised to-day that painful nightmares, suflocations with sensation of imminent death, reveal a choking in the great vessels of the brain and the heart . It will be well to remove the threats of congestion which they indicate by a modification of the way of living . So

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also in the case of frequent dreams of total or partial paralysis, which indicates a defective circulation of the blood, an " abnormal composition of the elements ." Here at least dreams offer a sure interest, and it is even probable that it was this practical application of oniromancy which formed in olden times the rightly fundamental basis of this science, and we should be wrong to neglect its instructive study under the pretext that the mystics and subsequently the charlatans turned it aside from its most interesting purpose . III The Oracle-Dream We give the following by way of information, for our work would be incomplete if we did not place before our readers the elements of Oniromancy, leaving it to their reflection, their mentality, their observation to decide to what extent they are able to use these elements with profit and to give them their confidence . First we have, according to the Golden Key of the Egyptians (following Meruet de Saint-Mesmin), a table of the days on which dreams are of good or bad omen :January February March April

..

May

..

June

..

July August

..

..

September

..

October

..

November December

..

1, 19, 27, 31 13,23 7, 8, 18 1, 10, 17, 22 3, 9, 12, 14 13, 19, 23, 28 5, 27 10, 20, 29, 30 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 14 10, 17, 20 . . 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13 4,20 2, 6, 10, 23, 30 5, 13, 27 . . 5, 7, 10, 14, 19 2, 13, 27, 31 6, 10, 15, 18, 30 13, 16, 22, 23 13, 16, 23, 31 3, 9, 27 .. 8, 13, 23, 30 6,25 10, 20, 29 13, 28, 31

You will be satisfied with them . They will be against you . They will be excellent . They will be insignificant . Don't tell anybody . Beware . They will come true . Bad dreams. Fairly good . The future is in danger . They will soon come true . God help you . They will be good . Fate is unfavourable to you . Don't reveal them . No results . Fate is with you . They will cause you pain . Very good dreams . Bad omen . They will be pleasant . Dreams of no importance . Great joy . Trouble at home .

250

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Let us add to this table 1 the information that it is on the night of Wednesday that dreams are most strongly informative as to business matters, and on the night of Friday as to love affairs . Dreams without value . According to Rankajou they are :(a) Dreams during the first hours of sleep during the time of digestion . (b) Dreams of a person or a thing which we have recently heard spoken of . (c) The feverish nightmares due to pain, to fright, to a book read, to something seen. (d) Dreams resulting from the manner of sleeping, from the position of the sleeper. (e) Dreams due to illness or some obvious outside cause (noise, cold, etc .)

The true oracle-dream .-This comes in the middle of sleep, preferably between three and seven o'clock in the morning, when the digestive functions are complete, when the body is in a good state of health, when the mind has not been exposed to any excitement, and when the normal position of repose causes no trouble to any organ . According to the Arab Ibn Sirin, the author of the first treatise on dreams, " the sleeper, lying on the right side, will have abstained from all excess of food or of drink . He will have gone to sleep with a light heart, an easy conscience, after having obeyed the precepts of the Koran as to prayers and ablutions ." IV Interpretation of Dreams These are the general rules as to the interpretation of dreams :(a) The gravity, the importance of the events predicted are in direct relation with the depth of impression produced in the dream by its omen . (b) The due date of the event predicted is in proportion :1. In the case of an animal, to the time of its gestation, or incubation, or the breaking of its egg . 2. In the case of a thing seen, to the distance at which it was, in the dream . 3 . In the case of a recurring event, to its recurrence, etc .

(c) Apart from fairly numerous exceptions, the meaning is, in general, the opposite of the dream ; thus dreaming of death means marriage or happiness ; of murder, safety ; of a mirror, betrayal . ' See also the table as to the influence of the moon, at the end of this chapter .

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251

(d) Monstrosities, deformities, ugliness, are however evil. (e) The right is good (also odd numbers) ; the left is fatal . (f) All wild felines, all huge animals, are evil. (g) All domestic animals, especially if of light colour (except the cat) are of good omen . (h) Reptiles are the worst possible omens ( slander, crookedness, betrayal). (i) Fishes mean " abundance and wealth " if they are fine and appear on the surface of the water but if they remain at the bottom, " serious danger." (j) Interpretation relating to all birds seen in dreams On the right or East-beneficent . Turning it away-upset . Head under wing-illness of a much On the left or West-maleficent . loved person . Flying high-good luck . Coming above you-beware . Flying low-bad luck. Wounded-betrayal. Singing-success . Hiding the head-bad sign . (k) Fruit means " abundance " unless its season is past at the time of the dream, in which case it means " check." (1) Vegetables are a deplorable omen, with two exceptions (mushrooms and peas). (ra) The various parts of the body indicate the persons to whom your dream refers :A dream of a head relates to-day to yourself ; amongst the Greeks to your father . A dream of teeth relates to-day to a near relative . A dream of a right hand relates to-day to your brothers and sisters ; amongst the Greeks to mother, son, friend or brother . A dream of a left hand relates to-day to your children ; amongst the Greeks to mistress, daughter or sister . A dream of the right foot relates to-day to your parents or grandparents ; amongst the Greeks to your slave . A dream of a left foot relates to-day to your servants ; amongst the Greeks to your slave . (n) In the case of a dream of illness, of pain, always consult the doctor . (o) Weapons are always a bad omen-betrayal or break . (p) It is never lucky to dream of an animal of the same sex as the sleeper ; the opposite is of course a good sign . (q) All dreams of efforts foretell difficulties to surmount. If, however, these efforts are weak or crowned with success, you may expect a happy ending . If on the other hand the task dreamed of is difficult, this is a sign of serious obstacles.

252

THE OCCULT SCIENCES (r) A light, brilliant, new or full article is a happy omen. (s) A dark, dull, old, used or empty article is evil. (t) Going up is always good . (u) Going down, always bad, denotes at least a decrease. (v) It is preferable not to dream of insects (worries, cares) . (x) Dream of living relatives or friends with whom you are on good terms is a lucky sign. (y) For a girl to dream that she sees herself married means " break, accident, possibly death ." (z) All dark or black shades are bad omens ; light shades on the other hand have a cheerful meaning . Any violent colour indicates excessive passion ; any colour mixed with black has meaning contrary to that which it has when alone. These are the chief meanings :Bright red-strong love . Warm purple-power . Red and black-furious hatred . Purple and black-intrigue, treason . Dark red-violent passion . Deep purple-sorrow. Light red-affection . Light purple-gentleness, wisdom . Dark yellow-low desires . Orange-happiness in love . Light yellow-material ease . Indigo-beneficent . Dark green-evil, threatening . White-family joys . Light green-serenity, cheerfulness . Black-mourning, death . Dark blue-domineering . Chestnut-melancholy, danger . Light blue-purity, happiness . White stones-happy omens . V

New Key to Dreams

After having given these general rules, there only remains for us to draw up our own Key to Dreams at once synthetic and reasonable (as far as this is possible), only by way of information of course, as our very scepticism does not prevent our being conscientious . For this task we have consulted the best ancient and modern sources, Artemidorus as well as Thylbus, Professor Enigma and the Countess Tady, the dictionary of Occultism of Desormes and Basile, etc ., etc. We have adopted the triple rule :1. Not to waste too much time on dreams which are too vague, too rare or too bizarre. 2 . To broaden the meaning of these images, for here more than in any other divinatory art would detail run the risk of landing in a very morass of charlatanism . 3. To neglect explanations which are silly for the very reason that they seem plain, or which have an unpleasant after-taste, such as for instance that threading pearls in a dream means a love affair .

ONIROMANCY

253 We shall in the main give those meanings which have unanimous opinion in their favour, this being a sign of tradition and moral value . Abandonment-misfortune, quarrel . Abbey-consolation for worries . Abduction-success . Absinthe-sorrow, illness . Abyss (go along one)-approaching danger. Abyss (fall into one)-immediate danger. Abyss (see one)-wise warning . Accident-danger . Accident (to the head)-danger to oneself or to one's father . Accident (to the right foot)-danger to one's brother or sister . Accident (to the left foot)-danger to a servant. Accident (to the right hand)-danger to one's mother . Accident (to the left hand)-danger to one's children. Accused (to be)-by a man, good news . Accused (to be)-by a woman, bad news . Actor-falseness, deceit . Aeroplane-ambition, success . Affront-blazing success . Alms (given)-great joy . Alms (received)-loss of employment . Altar-joy, consolation . Amazon-mysterious woman . Ambulance-wound, illness . Ambush-betrayal . Amputation-wounds, injustices, disappointments . Angel-protection, happiness. Angelus-great joy. Anger-reconciliation . Animals (a herd)-prosperity . Ants-activity, health. Anvil-fruitful perseverance . Applause-reproach . Apricots-health, pleasure . Army (on the march)-a great event coming. Asphyxia-signs of asthma, see the doctor .

Assembly of men-trickery . Assembly of women-gossip . Asthma-consult the doctor . Attack-serious danger. Avalanche-serious danger. Avenue-happy and easy life. Axe-strength of character . Azalea-expensive flattery . Babies-luck in home . Bag (full)-produce, abundance . Bag (empty)-laziness, cares . Bait-deceit, cheating . Balcony-ephemeral honours . Balcony (collapsing)-catastrophe . Ball-opportunity to seize . Ball (rolling)-success delayed . Bank of moss-small task. Banner-glory, honours . Baptism-desire fulfilled . Barking-beware . Barley-joy and health . Barrel (full)-abundance, wealth . Barrel (empty)-poverty . Barrel (full)-prosperity . Barrel (empty)-tightness of money. Barn-poverty. Basement of house-anguish, torment. Basket (full)-pleasant invitation . Basket (empty)-passing worry . Basket (full)-economy, success . Basket (empty)-beware . Bat-torment and peril. Bath-see water . Bath (too hot or too cold)-passing worry . Battle (field)-illness . Beans (white)-hateful omen. Beans (black)-grave danger imminent . Bear-awkward friend. Beard (cut)-danger of illness . Beard (fair)-good counsel . Beard (black)-betrayal. Bed (well made)-cleanliness, rest .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Bridge (broken)-difficult position . Bed (unmade)-disorder, mistake . Bed (empty)-appointment, disappoint- Break-renewal of affection. Build-position threatened . ment. Butter-excellent omen for material inBed (occupied) indisposition, illness . terests . Bed (go to) indecision, bother. Buttons (sew them on)-conjugal happiBees-successful work . ness . Bees (stinging)-bother, check . Burns-success. Bees (dead)-loss of money . Bushes-triumph over obstacles . Beggar-check, sorrow . Burglar-keep it secret . news. Bell-good Burial-barly marriage. Bell (alarm)-alarms justified . Burial (one's own)-serious illness . Belt-faithful love . Bumblebee-thoughtlessness, importuBitchjoy, satisfaction . nity . Bicycle-early success. Butterfly-inconstancy . Binoculars-you are being deceived. Biscuits-cheerful reunion . Bits-hatred, jealousy, wound . Cave (deep)-anguish . Candle (alight)-birth. Birth-good luck. Candle (out)-death . Birds-joy, good news. Birdcage-serious slander. Candle (wax)-birth. Cage (empty)-break, marriage broken Blindness-deceit, betrayal . off. Blows-break . Cage (full of birds)-cares passed away . Blade (of knife)-betrayal. Camp-rest and holiday . Blood-illness, wound . Cards (playing cards)-loss of money . Bouquet-disappointment. Cards (to play)-useless expenditure . Bottle (full)-boy, pleasure . . Cards (to see them played)-deceit, Bottle (empty)-disappointment, illness cheating. Bottle (broken)-great quarrel . Cards (to read them)-dangerous underBoat (sailing)-fortunate journey . taking . Boat (stationary)-joy, good news . Cavern-great sorrow. Boat (upset)-serious worries . Boat (entering into harbour)-fruitful Camel-hard work . Cat-treason, perfidy . 1 labour. Castle-happy event . Bones-omen of catastrophe . Castle (in ruins)-distress . Boar-violent enemies . Caterpillar-betrayal . Bolt-secret sorrow . Cake-family festivity, or pleasant surBrigand-squabble, loss of money. prise . Broom (sweep)-bother discovered . Cemetery-news of death. Breast-wealth, abundance . Bread (white or fresh)- coming good Cherries (sour)-tears threatened . Cherries (sweet)-joy in love. luck. Bread (brown or stale)-fatigue, worry . Chain-sorrow, suffering. Chariot-sure reward . Bridge (crossed)-happy solution . 254

1 According to Halil-el-Masri, a classic of Oniromancy, very very varied interpretation :To see one walking alone-probable journey by water . Mewing cat-petty slanders . Scratching cat-deceit . Purring cat-hypocrisy . Of a near relative . Angry cat-quarrels-cat which one kills, danger escaped, etc ., etc ., etc.

ONIROMANCY

Chocolate-satisfaction . Child (ugly)-contrariness. Child (beautiful)-satisfaction . Child (punish it)-injustice . Child (see it ill)-heart trouble . Chilblains-indiscretion, worry . Cheese-gain, profit. Chestnuts (cook them)-you will be exploited . Chestnuts (eat them)--difficult business matter. Cider-j oy, gaiety. Cistern-serious peril . Cloister-despair and peace . Clockimportant business matter . Cloak-protection. Clouds-squabble. Coffee (drink it)-fatigue, cares . Coffee (upset it)-upsets . Coffee (beans)-bad omen . Country (devastated)-sorrow, danger . Coffins-joy, recovery.' Coal (burning)-happiness, success . Coal (burnt out)-sorrow, death . Cottage-happy and simple life . Coachman-vain exertion . College-gaiety. Comedy-you are being laughed at. Cock (crowing)-early success . Cock (not crowing)-rivalries, quarrels. Convent-see cloister. Cow (fat)-abundance. Cow (lean)-famine . Confinement-joy, prosperity . Crutches-accident, infirmity . Cradle-hope realised . Crown (of gold)-honours, vanity . Crown (of leaves)-sign of pleasure. Crape--early mourning . Crime (see it)-exaggerated fear . Crime (commit it)-victory . Cross -good luck, triumph . Crab-separation, disunion . Crowd-importunity . Currants-squabbles, disputes . ' According to Hall :-To see oneself

255

Currants (out of season)-unfaithful-

ness.

Cyclone-catastrophe . ante-gaiety . Dancing (see it)-bad dream . Death agony (see one)-good omen for the patient. Death agony (one's own)-take care of yourself . Declaration (of love)-mystification . Decoration-joy, honours . Derailment-disorder. Descent-castastrophe . Desert-disappointment, abandonment . Detonation-scandal . Devil-torment, peril . Death (see one's own)-flourishing health Dice-fatal loss. Discussion-dispute, perfect agreement . Ditch-obstacle. Ditch (to jump it)-joy, success . Ditch (to fall into)-cares at home . Donkey-hateful omen. Donkey (running)-disappointment, sorrow . Donkey (resting)-slander . Donkey (black)-illness of a near

relative.

Donkey (braying)-serious troubles . Dog-friendship or faithful love . Dog (white)-happy omen . Dog (grey or black)-misfortune . Dog (yellow)-ruin. Dog (red)-discord or war . Dog (mad)-enmity. Dog (barking)-good sign . Dog (howling)-bad news . Dove-happy event . Douche-charming news . Doe-victory over one's enemies . Doctor-illness soon . Doll-ephemeral pleasure. Drinking trough-unimportant losses.

alive in a coffin-bad omen of death . To see a living woman on a bier-her early marriage, etc ., etc .

256 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Drunkenness (one's own)-sure success . Face (sad)-worry, idleness . (See a drunken woman-indisposition) . Face (beautiful)-pleasant visit . Drowned person (see one)-sorrow Face (ugly)-premature death . followed by joy. Fear (have it)-take care of your heart (Physiology) . Drowned person (save one)-service rendered. Feather-frivolity, worry . Drown-coming danger. Feather (coloured) - see generally Duck-anonymous letter . colours . Duel-discord without results . Fishbones-obstacles surmounted. Dungheap-dishonour . Fireplace (with fire)-family pleasures . Dungeon-fatal results . Fireplace (empty)-sorrow, loneliness . Dwarf-enemies, failure of undertaking. Figures-cerebral anaemia . Fire (to light it)-important event . Eagle--prosperity. Fire (with smoke)-threat of a quarrel. Eagle (dead)-ruin . Fire (without smoke)-enjoyment, Eagle (wounded)-loss of money . health . Earthquake-serious danger. Fire (conflagration)-great joy. Eel (alive)-you will miss a success . Fire (burning)-dangerous enemies . Eel (dead)-revenge carried through . Fire (gone out)-sorrow. Eggs (broken)-quarrel, misfortune . Fig-sincere love . Eggs (whole)-abundance . Fishing (for big fish)-joy, happiness . Eggs (red)-abundance . Fishing (for small fish)-limited success . Eggs (scrambled)-discord. Fishing (see it)-betrayal. Elephant--certain victory . Fight-failure of business matters . Embroider-quiet happiness . Fir tree-constancy. Empress-fatal pride . Fir tree (in forest)-health, long life . Enemies-salutary distrust . Flag-change, success . Epaulets-honours, triumph . Flame (erect)-triumph . Exile (emigration)-break, sorrow. Flame (brilliant)-success. Eyes (beautiful)--sincere love. Flame (red)-anger . Eyes (diseased)-bad business . Flame (gone out)-disillusion . Eye (lost)-death of near relative . Flowers-joy, love. Eclipse -failure, death . Flowers (white)-sign of death. Easy chair-change of employment . Flowers (red)-recovery from illness . Flowers (received)-kindness . Fall-confusion, anaemia . Flowers (given)-friendship. Fall (frequent dream)-weak heart Flowers (in the garden)-country walk. (physiology) . Flowers (faded)-disappointed hope . Fainting-coming illness. Flies-teasing. Fan-gaiety, futility. Fleas, lice-un pleasantness, worry . Famine-vain efforts . Fleas, lice (kill them)-triumph over Family-sign of joy. worries . Fairy-wishes realised . Flight (aerial)-triumph, honour . Fasting-unfounded fears . Foot (cut off)-pain, damages. Fair (country -enjoyments . Foot (diseased)-affairs going well. Factory-profitable labour . Foot (soiled)-tribulations, bothers. Face (cheerful)-happiness, long life . Fox (kill it)-success.

ONIROMANCY Ford-success, victory . Follow one's own funeral-notable success. Fountain-see water . Frog-indiscretion . Friend-good omen . Fury (harpy)-very bad sign . Fusee-ephemeral pleasure . Gag-betrayal, accident . Gaiety-coming sorrow. Gallows-success. Game (alive)-hope of wealth . Game (dead)-gain, present. Game (high)-loss of money . Garden (with flowers)-pleasant surprise . Garden (bare)-passing shortness of money. Gambling-good, if one loses . Gambling-bad, if one wins, Ghost (white)-joy, consolation, happiness, health . Ghost (black)-sorrow, deceit, mourning . Ghosts (several)-distress . Ghost (speaking)-advice to listen to Ghost (dead)-long and happy life . Ghost (dressed)-threat of serious illness . Giant-too much ambition, check . Gloves (to put them on)-pleasure trip . Gloves (to take them off)-upset . Gloves (lose them)-commit a blunder . Gloves (coloured)-see generally colours. Gloves (clean)-satisfaction. Gloves (soiled)-bother, insult. Gloves (with holes)-humiliation. Glass (full)-sentimental message. Glass (empty)-poverty, distress . Glass (broken)-omen of success . Gossip-spite, uneasiness. Goat (white)-inconstancy in love . Goat (black)-coming misfortune. God (to see him)-assured success. God (pray to him)-consolation . God (speak to him)-happiness. Goose-abundance . Gout-illness.

257

Go up-efforts to success . Goose-insincere compliments . Gold-loss of money. Grind (corn)-abundance, wealth . Grind (coffee)-pleasant success . Grind (pepper)-sorrow, melancholy. Grasshopper-omen of loss . Gun (cannon)-hope unfulfilled. Gun-deceptive gain. Gulf-see abyss . Guillotine-see scaffold. Guitar-declaration of love . Gull-safe journey . Hair-costly trickery . Harlequin-love of the unknown . Halo-esteem, glory . Hangman-bad news . Hat-bitter disillusion . Hay-profitable business . Hail-worries, sorrow . Hall-loss of money . out of)-unstable Hammock (fall position . Hammock (lying in it)-carelessness . Harp-pleasure, happiness. Hand-flattery . Hand (cut off)--disunion, loss of a friend . Hand (dirty)-visit from an applicant . Hammer-lack of skill, imprudence . Hanged person -agreeable surprise . Harvest (good)-wealth, abundance . Harvest (bad)-exploitation . Hearse-triumph, festivity . Hell--quarrels . Hermit-quiet life . Hedge (jumped across)-get out of a difficulty. Hedge (not jumped)-obstacle. Hedgehog-struggle, difficulties . Heron (to the left)-miscalculation, failure . Heron (to the right, or on one foot)good luck. Hen (white)-festivity . Hen (black)-news .

258 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Hen (coloured)-honest competence. Island-abandonment . Hen (fat)-wealth . Ivy-faithful friendship . Hen (thin)-mediocrity . Impasse-foolish undertaking. Hens (several)-scandal and gossip . Hen (pecking)-ruin. Jaguar-bad omen. Jam-squabbles with friends . Head (living)-good omen. Head (dead)-mourning, ambush. Jam (to eat it)-happy omen . Jaundice-unforeseen wealth. Head (swollen)-wealth, pride . Head (big)-power. Jewels-money affairs . Head (cut off)-liberty deliverance . Jewels (precious stones) -various Head (shaved)-very bad omen . according to the stone . Horseman (galloping)-success in an Jewels (imitation)-unlucky vanity . undertakin . Jealousy-hide your happiness. Horseman (fang off)-danger of great Journey-hazardous enterprise. reverses. Judge (one)-good omen . Horse (white)-wealth, success. Judges (several)--discord, break. Horse (black)-sorrow followed by pleasure. Key-appointment missed . Horse (grey or piebald)-unquiet life . Kitchen-good profit. Horse (coloured)-small profit . Kiosk-adventure in the country. Killing-fatal omen. Horse (harnessed)-good omen . Horse (running)-early success . Knife-danger, peril . Horse (falling)-sad news . Knot-embarrassment, difficulties . Horseshoe-happy journey. Kiss-deceit, betrayal. Honours (rendered)-good omen. Honours (received)-slander . Lambs (carry them)-complete satisHospital-distress, sorrow. faction . Holly-honour well kept. Lambs (kill them)-serious menace. I Honey-success in business. Lawyer-lawsuit, poverty . Hunchback-happiness . Lace-frivolity . Ladder (going up it)-patience, success . Hut-isolation, solitude . Hunting-useless labour . Ladder (going down it)-success doubtHunting horn-sorrow, check . ful . Hunger-vain efforts. Ladder (to fall off it)-total failure . Hyacinth-sincere affection . Lark (flying)-coming wealth . Lark (singing)-pleasant news. Ice-ambushes, dangers . Lark (caught)-loss of money . Ice (cream)-profitable gain . Labourer-prosperity, wealth. Idlers-important counsels . Labyrinth-mystery revealed. Idiot-upset . Lamp (alight)--clear business . Idol-omen of bad luck . Lamp (extinguished)-you are being Illumination-ephemeral joy . duped. Illness-melancholy, sorrow. Lantern-be prudent. Inn-worry, bothers . Laurel-content, success, marriage . Infirmity-you will help a friend . Laurel (pick it)--triumph . Iron (red hot)-risky undertaking . Laurel (to be crowned with it)-vanity . ' Also lambs coming near-marriage; mad-wealth and its worries (Presages by P . Vierzon) .

259 ONIROMANCY Mirror-gallantry . Laughter-coming sorrow . Leaves (budding)-birth. Mistletoe-happy omen . Leaves (dead)-serious illness . Military cap (put it on)-triumph . Legacy-loss of money, distress . Military cap (take it off)-disappointLegs (pains in)-cares, sorrow . ments. Legs (cut off)-sad news . Milk (drink it)-peaceful happiness . Legs (wooden)-support lost . Milk (upset it)-unrealisable plan . Millstone-enormous efforts . Letter (received)-news very soon . Letter (sent)-neglect of friendship . Mill (going)-joy, wealth . Letter (anonymous)-worries soon . Mill (stopped)-sorrow, useless efforts . Mill (windmill)-journey. Letter (illegible)-crooked business. Mill (watermill)-difficult undertaking. Letter (torn)-break. Light (to, a candle, a lamp, a fire)- Money (to find it)-trouble threatening. Money (lost)-unhoped for success . success in love . Limp, Limping-hard earned success . Money (counted)-important gain. Lightning (to the right)-happy omen. Money (spent)-ruin. Lightning (to the left)-family discord . Moon-fatal omen . Lips-frankness, security . Moon (full)-delay . Lizard-wise distrust . Moon (increasing)-deceit at home. Moon (pale)--sorrow. Linen (clean)-considerable legacy. Moon (misty)-illness. Linen (white)-marriage, happiness . Mother-good omen . Linen (soiled)-illness, death . Monk (dressed in white)-promise of Linen (worn out)-ruin . Linen (washed)-disorder, difficulty. success. Money-loss of money . Linen (changed)-a visit soon . Monster-omen of misfortune . Lion-powerful adversary . Mountain (climb it)-improvement . Lighthouse-good advice, protection. Load-fruitful effort . Mountain (go down it)-sign of the opposite. Lottery-bad luck. Monkey-mockery. Lock (broken)-risk of theft . Mouse-loss of money lent. Loft-see barn . Murder-see crime . Lyre-hope . Mud-serious worry . Muddy (to get)-coming danger. Mapslong journey . Mushrooms-long life, protection . Matches (burning)-honour, success. Matches (not lighting)-misunderstood Mute (at funeral)-good news. Muff-comfortable life . affection. Mason-death, legacy. Mustard-bad sign . Mule-business difficulties . Man with one arm-bother . Museum-intellectual pleasure . Marble-unfeeling friend . Music (pleasant)-good omen . Marriage-death. Mask-betrayal, lies . Music (discordant)-slander . Mass-internal joy . Nails-unexpected news . Magpie-bad omen . Nails (twisted)-great difficulties. Marsh-see water . Naked_ (to be)-insult, poverty . Medal-vanity, success . Meat-gaiety, profit . Naked (see some one)-scandal, slander .

260 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Nails (finger, cut)-worry, quarrel . Panther-fatal omen. Nails (finger, bitten)-pain. Park-pain, melancholy . Needles-spite, slander . Parrot-indiscretion, slander. Needles (packet of)-bothers, cares. Penknife-squabble, unfaithfulness. Needles (falling)-lawsuit, worries . Peacock-pride in the wrong place . Needles (broken)-loss of work . Peacock (with spread tail)-rich Necklace-ephemeral feeling . marriage . Nets (full)-wealth . Perfumes-see Smells. Nets (empty)-poverty . Pearl-disillusion, sorrow . Nets (torn)-disappointment . Peas (green)-perfect happiness. Negro-beware. Peas (dry)-coming marriage . Nest (seen from outside)-birth, profit. Pheasant-happy event . Nest (full)-omen of good luck . Pin-wounded self-esteem . Nest (full of serpents)-great worry . Pit (to fall into it)-fatal omen . Nettles-suffering, betrayal. Pitchfork-sterile labour . Nightmare-danger, indigestion . Pictures-pleasures to come . Night (clear)-success, happiness. Pigeon-sincere love . Night (dark)-sign of bad luck . Pipe-small satisfaction . Noise-worry, quarrel. Pipe (broken)-quarrel . Notary-receipt of money . Pig-difficulties, damage . Number-profit, present. Platform-protection, honour . Numbers- 1 Poppy-pleasure, amusement . Nun-protection, consolation . Pond-see Water. Nurse-prosperity. Postman-letter coming. Nuts, hazelnuts-difficulties which can Policeman-absolute safety. be overcome . Poverty-profitable change . Post, T shaped-success. Oak tree (cut down)-loss of a friend . Procession-funeral . Officer-fortunate event . Procession (wedding)-funeral proOlives-olive tree, peace, reconciliation . cession . Old man-happiness in the family . Presents (at New Year)-loss of money . One-eyed person-troublesome omen . Prison (enter it)-fatigue,. oppression. Oven (alight)-ease, abundance . Prison (come out)-recovery from Oven (gone out)-distress . illness, fatigue . Owl-don't start anything next day . Procession-luck on journey . Ox (fat)-abundance . Promenade-tranquillity security, quick Ox (thin)-bad harvest . joy. Ox (yoked)-quiet happiness . Purchase-gain, profit. Ox (mad)-quarrel. Purse (full)-loss of money. Ox (stopping)-fatal indecision . Purse (empty)-unexpected profit . Oysters-easy and sure profit . Public-house-depressing influences. Pump-difficulty, fatigue . Pancake-pleasure, surprise . Quail-serious difficulties . Palace (see it)-distress, sorrow . Palace (inhabit it)-pride in the wrong Rainbow-end of troubles . place. Rain-despotism, tyranny . ' See note at end of chapter .

ONIROMANCY Raven (to the left)-danger of death. Raven (to the right)-disappointment, sorrow. Railing-serious worry . Rabbit (white)-friendship, success . Rabbit (grey)-marrage . Rabbit (black)-lies, reverses . Rabbit (eat it)-recovery from illness. Rabbit (kill it)-danger of betrayal . Railway engine-great journey . Railway engine (railed)-fatal hurry. Rain (fine)-worry, difficulty . Rain (heavy)-wealth, abundance. Rain (storm)-accident. Raisins (ripe)-covetousness, enjoyment Razor-quarrel, dispute . Raisins (eat them)-slight drunkenness, beware I Rat-hidden enemies . Raft-safety . Removal-change of employment . Reaping-lucrative labour. Reading-pleasure . Ring-engagement, reconciliation . Ring (as present)-marriage, protection . Ring (broken)-divorce . Riot worries, jealousies . River-see Water. Road (broad)-happy life. Road (narrow)-deceit . Road (dusty)-disagreements . Rope-fetters. Rocks (at sea)-difficulties. Rowing-aim attained. Rose (given)-sympathy bestowed. Rose (received)-worldly success. Running-success. Ruins-sorrow, reverses. Safe, strong box (full)-constant cares. Safe, strong box (empty)-success in the end . Saleloss, tightness of money . Sand-uncertainty, disappointment . Salt-excellent omen . Salt (upset)-squabbles, sorrow . Sailor-uncertainty, danger.

261

Scissors-quarrel, death of friend . Scales (weighing)-legal business . Scream-bad news . Scaffold-honours, high position . Scorpion-serious loss . Seat (to sit down on it)-serious business . Seat (of wood)-moderate profit . Seat (of stone)-important profit . Servant-tedious visit . Sea (calm)-happiness, success. Sea (stormy)-anger, check. Serenade-sentimental jealousy . Shelter (see a)-faithful friend. Shelter (seek a)-worry threatening . Shepherd-perfect happiness. Sheep-good omen. Sheet (bed)-prosperity, happiness . Shaving-loss of money . Silver plate-avarice, bothers . Sing (hear singing)-sorrow to endure . Sing (oneself)-complete joy . Silks-scandal, gossip . Shipwreck (make)-delay . Shipwreck (escape)-good omen . Ship-see boat. Sky (blue)-sign of happiness. Sky (dark)-passing worries . Sky (stormy)-change of position . Skating-easy gain . Skein (of yarn)-difficult position . Skittles (play at)-pleasure . Skittles (upset)-failure of plan . Slaughter house-gains, success . Smoke-disastrous business affair . Smoke (going straight up)-difficulties overcome. Smoke (white)-small worries. Smoke (grey)-painful worries . Smoke (dark)-great sorrow. Smells (pleasant)-good omen . Smells (unpleasant)-great worry. Snail-honours and slander . Snow-beginning of love . Snake-someone has a grudge against you. Snake (kill it)-victory.

262 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Song (sacred)-sign of sorrow . Swallow (kill it)-ingratitude . Sorrow-early consolation . Sweets (receive them)-flattery . Sowing-joy, wealth. Sweets (give them)-attentions well received . Spider-lawsuit, betrayal . Spitting-insult, despising. Sweets (eat them)-futile spendings . Spirits (celestial)-see Saints . Swan (white)-happiness, prosperity . Spectacles-disgrace, melancholy . Swan (black)-worries, cares. Spinning wheel-poverty, weakness . Swan (swimming)-great success . Squabble-affection, disagreement . Sword-success, victory . Stockings (silk)-money for you. Swim-see Water. Stockings (in holes)-approaching tightness of money. Table-(sit at)-pleasant comfort. Stockings (darned)-family pleasures. Tailor-bad faith. Stockings (to be without'-be careful . Telegram-surprise. Stockings (to take them off)--change of Tear (in dress)-passing bother . fortune, simplicity . Tempest-danger, ambush . Stick-travel worries . Tent-unforeseen adventure . Stoutness-wealth . Testament-omen of death . Stoutness (lost)-poverty . Testament (destroyed)-coming legacy . Stairs (to go up)-profitable effort . Thistle-disloyalty. Stairs (to go down)-loss of employ- Thimble-quiet happiness. ment. Thorn (pricking)-vexation, reproach . Stairs (to fall down)-peril of illness . Thorn (drawn out)-success . Stars (pale)-life of poverty. Thread (on reel)-lasting affection . Stars (brilliant)-happy destiny . Thread (broken)-bad omen. Stars (shooting)-certain success . Thread (tangled)-great efforts. Straw (in stacks)-wealth, abundance . Thunder-sorrow, illness. Straw (in sheaves)-economy. Thunderstorm-danger threatening . Straw (in barn)-income. Thinness-loss of money . Straw (wet)-prison. Throne-change of position. Straw (on fire)-money lost . Thief-false friend. Stones-see Pebbles . IL Tiger-bad omen. Sun (rising)-joy . Tower-ambition realised . Sun (blazing)-success, triumph . Toad-warning of danger. Sun (hidden)-struggles . Tooth (growing)-pregnancy. Sun (red)-discord, war . Tooth (falling out)-death of a relative Sugar-confidence betrayed. or a friend. 2 Suicide-upsets . Tooth (white)-success . Suit-case-short journey. Tooth (bad)-illness . Swallow-family happiness. Torch (burning)-happiness . Swallow (leaving the house)-unhappi- Torch (extinguished)-dishonour . ness enters it . Toy-lack of will power . Swallow (coming in)-good news from Tobacco-ephemeral pleasures . afar . Tomb-long life . Swallow (dead)-lost affection . Torrent--danger, adversity. ' See notes at end of chapter . It is remarkable that this interpretation is the same in all keys to Dreams .

ONIROMANCY

Tower---success, rise. Trees (climb them)-greatness wealth .

and

Trees (fall from)-approaching misfortune. Trees (struck by lightning)-despair . Trees (cut down)-loss of a loved one . Trees (avenue of)-long happiness . Trees (green or flowering)-unexpected pleasure . Trees (covered with fruit)-prosperity . Trickery-beware. Trap-betrayal . Treasure-hope disappointed . Tribunal-lawsuit in prospect . Tramp-lack of initiative. Turkey cock-serious mistakes . Tunnel-laborious undertaking . Turtle dove-mutual love . Ulcer-cares, sorrow . Umbrella (in the hand)-lasting friendship .

Umbrella (open)-help, protection, support. Umbrella (shut)-security in business. Umbrella (inside out)-coming change. Umbrella (lost)-abandonment . Umbrella (found)-valuable connection . Undressing oneself-lack of foresight, dishonour. Unfaithfulness-lasting love. Uniform-adventure . Velvet-honour, wealth . Vengeance-long lawsuits . Vermin (kill it)-fruitful gain . Veil (torn)-secret revealed . Veil (woman's)-modesty . Virgin-great happiness . Vinegar-jealousy, quarrel. Violin-happy love . Viper-see Snake . Visit (paid)-injustice . Visit (received)-flattery, sorrow. Volcano (in eruption)-passion. 1

263

Volcano (extinct)-dangerous adventure . Vomit-great worry. Vulture-dangerous illness . Vulture (kill it)-favourable luck .

Water (clear)-health, happiness . Water (muddy)-dispute, sorrow . Water (to bathe in it)-loss of a relative or a friend. Water (fresh)-imminent wealth . Water (hot)-illness, accident. Water (boiling)-happiness which flies away. Water (to fall into it)-persecution, ruin . Water (running)-lasting happiness. Water (stagnant)-sorrow. Water (to swim in it)-ill-luck overcome . Water (inundation)--serious accident . Water (things settling down in it)-happy omen. Waterfall-abundance. Wasp--spiteful enemies. Walk (easily)-triumph . Walk (with difficulty)-difficult triumph . Walnut tree-danger, misfortune . Weapon-plot, danger . Wealth-disillusion, danger . Weasel-dangerous woman . Weasel (to kill it)-considerable profit . Weathercock-lack of resolution. Wedding-short joy . Weeping-good news . Well- 1 Weeping Willow-coming sorrow Wheat-(see under " C " corn) Wheelbarrow-suffering, poverty Wheel (turning)-fortunate change . Whistle (heard)-danger, dishonour . Widowhood-satisfaction, marriage . Wings (to have them)-your position will improve. Window (open)-easy success . Window (shut)-danger escaped . Winding sheet-legacy soon . Wind (gentle)-happiness . Wind (storm)-misfortune .

See notes at end of chapter.

264 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Wind-bliss . Wolf (kill it)-triumph . Window (broken)-dispute, theft . Working man-work and gain. Wine (in bottle)-happy old age . Worms-small worries . Wound-illness . Wrinkle-disillusion . Women-lies, betrayal, quarrel. Women (several)-mortification . Youth-good omen. Women (pregnant)-pleasant news . Wolf -suffering, adversity . Zouave-success . VI

Notes on the Key to Dreams I . Thylbus in his Realm of Dreams speaks of the interpretation to

be given to numbers dreamt of . According to him, if the figure is higher than 22 (which is that of the major arcana of Taroc) it must be reduced according to the usual occult method by adding its digits . For instance 829,508 = 8 + 2 + 9 + 5 + 0 + 8 = 27 . And 27 = 2 + 7 = 9 . Thus we give to numbers the meaning of the leaves of the Taroc which may be summed up as follows :1. Skill-hence success . 10 . Fate-change in your position . 2 . Mystery-hence tangled or mys- 11. Strength-your effort will meet with terious business . reward . 3. Fertility-hence fruitfulness of 12. Sacrifice-trial is before you. current plans . 13. Death-conclusion of a cycle, of a 4 . Stability-hence continuation of business, of an adventure . current plans or business . 14. Metamorphosis-change, alteration . 5. Inspiration-you will presently 15. Fatalism-your deeds are going to have an interesting intuition . have their result (good or bad) . 6. Love-you will ere long have a 16 . Catastrophe-danger on the way . pleasant experience in this respect . 17. Hope-don't be discouraged . 7. Providence-protection will come to 18. Darkness-ambush in the shadow . you . 19. Unveiling-solution nearing . 8. Justice-you will have justice done 20 . Surprise-something unexpected . you in the case of a lawsuit, 21. Aberration-you are going to do contest, etc . something foolish . 9. Prudence-take care. 22. Absolute-great success . II. Precious stones .-Remember correctly the stone of which you dreamt and give it its symbolic meaning . Here is a short list of these meanings as commonly recognised :Amber-favours, profits. I Amethyst-satisfaction .

ONIROMANCY 265 Beryl-good omen for affairs of the Jet (Saturnian stone)-loneliness, wisheart . dom, austerity . Carbuncle-good omen in love affairs . Lapis-lazuli-satisfaction in friendship Chalcedony-material success . or love. Coral-peril at sea for you or some one Malachite-danger escaped . who is near to you . Opal (stone of black fate)-bad omen . Cornelian-victory over adversaries Ruby-rash act. (lawsuit, rivalry, etc .) Sapphire-attainment of favour longed Diamond-business carried through for . successfully . Topaz-triumph . Emerald-intellectual success . Turquoise-you acted wisely . Garnet-conclusion of a current matter .

III . Wells .-Dreams of wells have given rise to numerous commentaries, the origin of which is the importance of water in hot countries . It follows that the meanings attached to them by Eastern Oniromancy must have at least a local value . We give them anyhow as a curiosity . Draw clear water from a well-happy Well found on the road and where one marriage in prospect . drinks-great success . Draw muddy water-unhappy love in Digging a well-your secret loves will be prospect. discovered. Full well-abundance of goods for the Filling up a well-your secret loves will house to which it belongs (if it is have success . possible to recognise it) . Throwing someone into a well-very bad Well with water low-contrary meaning . sign . Well overflowing-the secrets of the Going down into a well-a journey soon . master will be betrayed . Falling into a well-illness, danger, Uncovered well on one's estate-assured death . wealth. Falling from a clock tower into a wellPublic well-the locality in which it is unhappy second marriage . situate will be fortunate . Public well overflowing-contrary meaning. IV . Influence of the Moon from the onirocritic point of view . According to some authors, and especially Easterners, the following are the 28 meanings which correspond to the lunar month as regards dreams :New Moon :1. Dreams generally cheerful . 2. Beneficent day. Bad dreams have little effect . 3. Useless dreams . Do not take any notice . 4. Good dreams alone will come true . 5. Fateful day . Dreams doubtful. 6. Good day . Do not tell your dreams of the previous night .

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First Quarter :7. Dreams generally come true . 8. Dreams relating to travel specially come true . 9. Dreams quickly come true . 10. Vain dreams, for your day must have been good . 11 . Vain dreams. Your day was anyhow . 12 . True dreams . Your day was bad . 13 . Dreams quickly come true . Second Quarter :14. Very lucky day . Dreams doubtful. 15. True dreams following on a sad day . 16. True dreams following on a happy day . 17 . Dreams come true within three days . 18. True dreams following on uneasiness . 19 . Coming true soon . 20. True dreams after an interesting day . Last Quarter:21 . Day of rejoicing . Vain dreams . 22 . Maleficent day . True dreams. 23. Day of ill-humour . False dreams . 24. Indifferent day. Vain dreams. 25 . Maleficent day. Indifferent dreams. 26. Maleficent day . True dreams . 27 . Day of enterprise. Doubtful dreams . 28 . Indifferent day. Vain dreams .

CHAPTER VII SECONDARY DIVINATIONS I

Ancient Divinations Apart from the great CLASSIFICATIONS are sometimes difficult . divinatory sciences which we have just passed in review, dividing them under the two heads of Deduction and Intuition, there are others which are very interesting as well as rare, such as Voyance, Psychometry, Mirrors and their derivatives ; others which are less so but are still in use and are described in many popular pamphlets, such as Omens, Oracles, Onomantics, the mystic influence of certain spoken phrases, etc ., others which have fallen into complete disuse, whilst in olden times they swarmed . Of these we shall give a short list . These various divinations depend mainly on Intuition and on Empiricism . Some of them belong rather to the Magic Sciences, some to the Metapsychical Sciences . The reader must therefore be indulgent to a classification which perhaps he himself would make differently . The main thing at bottom is to avoid gaps, and the Table of Contents will always enable him to find what he wants . But even before devoting a few pages to each of these divinations of second rank, 1 let us shortly mention some of the innumerable ways of ancient divination, most of which, we repeat, have fallen into disuse . We shall in this draw on the Dictionary of Occultism of Desormes and Basile :In olden times, as a matter of fact, men drew their omens from all kinds of observations . For instance from the clouds (nephelomancy), the winds (austromancy), the smoke of the hearth (capnomancy), the flight or the song of birds (ornithomancy), the flame of a lamp (lampadomancy), the smoke of incense (thurifumia), the ashes of a sacrifice (spodomancy), the water of a fountain (pegomancy), etc ., etc. 1 We call them this so as to distinguish them from the preceding better known ones, and not with the after-thought of considering them less interesting . Voyance and Psychometry are extraordinary phenomena, but they rather belong to the metapsychical sciences, and being fairly rare, are put into the second class of our first part . 267

268

THE OCCULT SCIENCES They also drew them from the figures made by a handful of things thrown haphazard on a flat surface, such as pebbles or peas (cleromancy), salt (alomancy), dice or knucklebones (astragalomancy, ragalomancy), pearls (margaritomancy), earth (geomaney), barley flour (crithomancy) . Further from the examination of the skull (craniomancy), the entrails (anthropomancy), the bones (osteomancy), the lines of the forehead (metopomancy), the nails (onychomancy), the eyes (oculomancy), the stomach (engastrimancy), the nerves of the dead (necyomancy), the boiled head of an ass (kephalonomancy) . Naturally the lines of the hand (chiromancy) furnished and still furnish divinatory data, as also the cards (cartomancy), the handwriting (graphology), dreams (oniromancy), the stars (horoscopy), to which special and more interesting arts we have devoted separate chapters . Other elements are also met with, such as the ripples formed on the water by speech or by the wind (aeromancy), the sudden meeting of an animal (apantomancy), the number of letters in the family name (arithmancy), the movements of a hanging key (clidomancy), the crackling of a branch of laurel thrown into the fire (daphnomancy), the sound or the image made by the fall of a body into the water (lecanomancy), the appearance of wine (oenomancy), the etymology of names (onomamancy), the arrangement of pieces of dry wood found on the road (xylomancy), the remaining letters of words written in the ash after breath of wind or other (tephramancy), the sound of a figtree shaken by the wind (sycomancy), the way of dressing (stolisomancy), the lines striking the eye on opening haphazard a volume of Horace or Virgil (stoIcheomancy, rhapsodomancy), the howling of dogs (ololygmancy), the figures made by molten lead dropped on the ground (molybdomancy), the reflection of a mirror (crystallomancy), the shape of melting wax (ceromancy), etc ., etc. There is no end to the enumeration of everything which enabled diviners to make predictions . The greater part of the time it was pure fancy, childishness, imposture . But some ways of divination have survived, and some may be seriously considered, because, as we have said, they are really disturbing, or because they are based on data of value . We have studied the great divinations . Let us pass on to omens and oracles, to onomantics, etc . II Omens Men have always believed that signs due to the intervention of occult powers were able to give them information as to more or less

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS

269

near events affecting them, whether on matters relating to themselves individually or on matters relating to their country or even to a whole group of nations . Thus it was thought that the appearance of a comet in the sky announced a war ; or more modestly, that a raven seen on leaving one's house and going towards the left foretold a worry during the day. It is even curious that of the word " sinister " which in Latin simply means "to the left" but denotes "of bad omen," the word " sinister " should have been made, the meaning of which is well known. Well informed people, like the Emperor Julian, attached great importance to omens . Even a scientist like the surgeon Ambroise Pare believed in prognostications . Omens have always been divided into two classes :-

1 . Natural omens, drawn from the elements, from plants and animals, omens applying only to things which are to happen in the ordinary course of Nature and thus will happen entirely outside the human will. In exceptional cases the Church allows belief to be accorded to these omens, since, according to St . Paul, " God may sometimes reveal to men the secrets of the future ." 2. Artificial omens which give information as to events which may happen through the human will . Thus for instance the asking of the gods whether to undertake a given business or not . The Church forbade them, claiming that they were but illusion, lies and vanity . On various occasions the Bishops in council decided to punish those who professed " to foretell by all the means which the devil uses to give certainty to uncertain matters ." But it is curious that the Church, whilst refusing to believe in the truth of oracles, should profess belief in devils . Neither do we want here to give any opinion as to the predicting value contained in the meeting of a priest, or of a hunchback whose hump we touch . It is especially by way of information for those persons who claim to have observed that certain omens were followed by certain results, that we have written this chapter and drawn up the tables which follow . The " science of omens," very well known in olden times, drew its prognostications from :-

(a) What is seen ; (b) What is received ; (c) What is done.

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What is seen or met.-Superstitious people draw good or bad omens from what they see or meet on the way, animals, plants, various things . Often they have their trouble for nothing, for it must be remembered that all things created by nature must of necessity be found somewhere on earth 1 And further that if some very common animals strike your eye, it becomes truly childish to believe that by so doing they scatter an omen which through its infinite repetition would lose all value . Thus in the thousand and one pamphlets devoted to omens we read that the sight of a bee in flight foretells good and cheerful work, and that of an ox promises wealth . How many travellers would become rich through passing through the country where at every corner we meet a team of oxen, and how the race of lazy people would die out in a country where swarm millions of bees fluttering from flower to flower in fine weather i Let us not exaggerate, and even if we do not confine ourselves to putting all meetings to the credit of Chance, let us reduce omens of this kind to a minimum, limiting them to cases which are somewhat out of the common . Thus limited, we may say with good authors that :Good luck may be brought by the sight of an eagle, of a spider (at night), of a wagtail, of a quail, of a piebald horse (luck in gambling), of a squirrel (pleasure very soon), of a ferret (success), of a hedgehog, of gulls on the masts of a boat (fortunate journey by sea), of a peacock spreading his tail (happiness at home), as these meetings are not frequent . Bad luck may be brought by the sight of a spider in the morning (sorrow) or at noon (cares), of a bat which cries in flight, of a cuckoo singing, of a dog howling at the moon 1 (someone is dying in the neighbourhood), of a hawk or a kite (an enemy lies in wait for you), a weasel (trouble at home), of an owl howling three times (serious bad luck), of a serpent (betrayal), of a lizard (disappointment) . According to Belly, we should add these omens relating to animals A donkey rolling in the dust-fine weather . A cat rubbing its paw behind its ear-rain . A toad-rain (rain as a matter of fact drives it from its retreat) . A cock crowing on your wedding day-quarrels at home . A raven flying off to your left-bad news . Two vultures together-death within two days of a person you know. A spider spinning its web-someone is plotting against you . 1 This is a specially interesting case, as a dog can in fact divine telepeychically the presence of a dying person within fairly extensive radius .

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS

271

Just as in the case of animals, we should be very careful about the omens drawn from the sight of plants . For it would really be too easy if, following the common belief, we could be sure of never being deceived in love owing to the fact that we saw a wisteria, and it would be terrible if an old man were to harm you every time that your eye lights on a fir tree 1 Let us confine ourselves to somewhat more rare occurrences :See white heather-consolation if you have a sorrow . Find a four-leaved clover-you will have great good luck . Discover an aloe in bloom (which does not happen very often) -tears soon . Look at heather faded-sorrow in prospect . Transataumancy was the science of omens drawn from things which unexpectedly met your eye . We will only mention a few :The rope of a hanged man, if a piece is given you by the person who cut the suicide down-brings luck . A candle falling-bad luck to fear . Cross formed by two knives-bad omen . Cross formed by two forks-slander about you . Cross formed by a spoon and a fork-pleasure followed by sorrow . Cross formed by two matches-pleasure soon . Horseshoe found on the ground-luck-bringer to keep . Your shoe-lace coming untied-interesting news . Spilt ink-trouble in current affairs . We leave on one side as too childish omens drawn from fires which burn brightly or will not light (know how to lay them and have proper chimneys, and they will always be all right 1), from smoke which on coming out of the chimney goes straight up, spreads or blows down (blame the wind), of the kinds and directions of the rain (ditto), etc . Let us only note the following beliefs which at least have the faith of the peasant in their favour :Rain on St . Swithin's day-forty days' rain to come . Red clouds at sunset-sign of wind for the night or the next day (see below for a handful of proverbs) . Let us go on to meetings with persons, and note the best known It is a good omen to meet on the road a madman (good luck very soon), a hunchback, a trio formed of a postman, a soldier and a white horse (wish!) . It is a bad omen to meet a priest, a gravedigger, a madman singing, a man without legs .

272

THE OCCULT SCIENCES What is received .-Osperomancy was the name given to divination from presents-good or bad-received by chance . Good presents :-Black cat, white mouse, white rat, tortoise, birds, mirror, crystal bowl, bunch of roses, penny with a hole in it. Bad presents :-Black pearl, sapphire, lapis-lazuli, weapons (quarrel), plates, Turkish slippers, screen, perfume burner, hour-glass, prism, amphora or tankard (fatal drunkenness), yatagan (revenge), knife (cuts friendship) . What is done.-(A.) The following events are said to bring good luck :To get caught up, upset matches, touch the hump of a hunchback, break white glass, find a horseshoe, step into mud, upset wine on the table, the left ear ringing (someone is speaking good of you), get up on the right foot (good temper), drop an egg, give bread to a poor man, sneeze, touch wood, hang up mistletoe in the home, etc . (B.) On the other hand bad luck is brought by :Killing a cat, a dog, a toad, a night bird, a bee, a ladybird or a spider at night ; putting on a wedding ring before being married (break probable) ; having one's wedding ring cut (divorce) ; breaking a plate, a mirror, a bottle 1 ; singing on a Friday, mimicking a lame man, giving away a horseshoe one has found ; to tread on the tail of a cat, upset salt or pepper (especially both together), get up on the left foot, be thirteen at table, etc . Proverbs are the Wisdom of the People . They are worth what they are worth . We give a handful here which are extracted from an old almanac and refer to the seasons . These prognostications are obviously the result of observations through thousands of years and they must have been found true or they would not have been continually quoted by Public Opinion . At any rate it would have been difficult for us to omit such a list from the oracles given in a book of divinatory lore . Hail and thunder in February is the sign of a good autumn. Much snow in February is the guarantee of a fine summer. Snow in February puts little corn into the barn . On the day of good St . Blasius winter cold decreases . Fog in March brings early rain-more frost in May than you want . Much wind in March brings marriage to the labourer's daughter . ' It is also unlucky if a mirror or a glass breaks suddenly without apparent cause . Numerous coincidences (we know several ourselves) have confirmed this curious and sad omen .

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 273 Rain in April and dew in May bring a good harvest. If it thunders in April-prepare your barrels . Buds in April put little wine into the barrel . Rain at Easter means small fruits of the earth . Mud in May-dust in August (Picardy) . Cool May-big loaf (Lyons) . Rain in May-corn in August . Rain at St . Medard last for forty days . (Humida Medardi pluvias lux usque minatus) . Unless St. Barnabas cuts the grass under foot . (Barnabas sanctus fatiem jubet ire per herbas . 1) Married in August often collects no goods . On St. Laurence's day put the scythe into the barn . On St . Lupus day hang up the lamp (Picardy) (the watches begin) . Leave your place on St. Lambert s day and you lose it. October seminat, vina proebet cum carne ferina. 2 On St. Francis day start sowing and earlier if you like . On St. Martin's day all must is good wine . On St. Clement's day stop sowing wheat . On St. Lucy's day the day increases by the jump of a flea . (Ad saltum pulicis fert Lucia lumina solis) . On St. Thomas's day the day increases by a good step . If the wind weeps at Christmas it is for a great friend dying . OMENS SPECIALLY RELATING TO WOMEN

(According to the Amia)

(The Roman figures following the predictions refer to the twelve counsels) . DAYS OF THE MONTH

1. You will live happily . 11. Entire faithfulness . 2. You will be despised . III. 12. Great passion. 3. Quarrels. XI. 13 . Expect sorrows . VII . 4. Joy and gaiety . 14. Fortunate news . 15. What you expect will happen . 5. Sorrow approaching . IX. 6. Surprise in love. 16 . Separation . 7 . Platonic love. 17. Bad news. II. 8. Great joy to experience . 18. You will be desired . 9. Change . V. 19. You will be loved . 10. Great and cloudless love . 20. You will love. VIII. ' It will be seen that this is an entirely free and popular translation of the Latin proverb . ' All the tasks of October, vine harvest, sowing, hunting are included in this Latin phrase .

THE OCCULT 274 21. Passing worry. IX . 22. Melancholy, suspicion. 23. Adventure and good luck . 24. You will be upset. IV. 25. Early journey . 26 . Return and regret .

SCIENCES 27 . Realisation of your dreams . 28. Someone is thinking of you . I . 29 . Pains and tears . VI. 30 . Unexpected event . 31 . You have admirers .

DAYS OF THE WEEK

Monday.-New acquaintance. Tuesday.-Present. II . Wednesday .-Anxiety . IV. Thursday .-Proposa l.

Friday.-Sorrow . X. Saturday .-Settlement of affair . Sunday.-Perfect friendship .

DELAYS

ADVANCES.

1 day.-Someone thinks of you . 2 days .-Upset. 3 days .-Someone loves you .

1 day . You will be happy. 2 days .-New friendship . 3 days .-Sorrow .

THE TWELVE COUNSELS OF AMIA

I. Love with all your heart those who love you . II. Help those who suffer, even if they are your enemies . III . Do not burden yourself with a hatred-it is too heavy a load . IV. Do not speak of your neighbour except to say good of him . V. Let kindness always be in your heart . VI. Keep back your tears-they are strength running away . VII. Look upon childhood as sacred . VIII. Give your heart to him who deserves it and be faithful . IX. Uplift your thoughts by healthy reading . X. Have faith in will-power-it is the greatest of all powers . XI. Understand the cares of man and never sulk . XII. Remember that charm passes and that gentleness remains .

III

Oracles What will to-morrow be made of 2 Eternal question which almost every man has asked every day since the world has been . At the very dawn of time, when our ancestors lived on the edge of deep woods or of great defensive lakes, when their only occupation was hunting so as to clothe and feed themselves, to watch the neighbourhood of their huts or their caves so as to parry any hostile attack, and when they began to cultivate the soil and to build towns, ever at each new dawn they questioned the skies or the gods whom they invented, and

275 SECONDARY DIVINATIONS when evening came they still asked, what will the coming hour be made Of? in their anxiety to know if the day or the morrow would be favourable to them or not, if evil or death threatened them, whether or not they might look forward to some good luck . And back in farthest antiquity men either more cunning or better instructed than their neighbours, and who were called diviners, soothsayers, sibyls,' pythonesses (women, being very intuitive, were not backward in wanting to teach others), offered their help to those who held them in veneration, and distributed hope or fear . The most eminent persons, chiefs, princes, monarchs, were haunted by the same worries as the lower classes . They also consulted those who claimed to be able to lift the veil of the future . Further, is not each one of us inclined without knowing why, sometimes to sadness, sometimes to gaiety, as if unknown causes, inherent in our surroundings, constituted a condition of our soul ? It is this discovery which gave birth to the idea of drawing from our surroundings hints as to the future . Before mentioning the various means of questioning the futurewe will, in order to facilitate interpretations, explain in a general way and once for all the meaning of the various signs met with on consulting some of them, such as coffee grounds, the white or the yolk of eggs, earth, molten lead, etc . A straight line-calm and quiet Wavy lines-journey (its length corresponds to the length of the lines). existence. Several straight lines-old age free from A broken line (Fig . 4)-heart sorrow . infirmity. Fairly long straight line (Fig . I)-long peaceful life. Straight line crossed by slanting lines (Fig . 2)-accident or illness . A curved line (Fig . 3)-false friend to beware of . Several curved lines-several false

friends.

Several broken lines-serious money trouble . A slanting line-your affairs will go smash . Slanting line crossing a curve-you will be offered work. Several slanting lines crossing several curves-you will be able to take advantage of circumstances .

i There were, according to the ancient authors (see Frgdgrio de la Grange) 13 Sibyls 1 . Sabella, who wrote a book on the wars of Alexander . 2 . Libyca, of whom Euripides speaks . 3 . Delphica, whom Chrysippus considered wisdom personified. 4 . Cymera, found in the chronicles of Nevins and Piso . 5 . Samia, mentioned by Eratosthenes. 6 . Cumana (or Amalthea), born at Cumis in Ionia . 7 . Phrygia, of Ancyra, who foretold the death of Christ. 8 . Hellespontica (or Marmessa), born near Troy and mentioned by Herodotus . 9 and 10. Europea and Agrippa, without details as to date or place . 11 . Tiburtina, who lived in a cave at Tivoli, near Rome . 12 . Erithrea, with Cumana the best known, and of whom St . Augustine speaks . 13 . Finally the Queen of Sheba, at the time of Solomon.

276

THE

OCCULT

Slanting lines crossing broken lines-you will suffer and cause suffering in love . Slanting lines cutting wavy ones-give up a dangerous journey. Very regular square (Fig . 5)-happiness, pleasure, drunkenness, love and legacy. Small irregular squares-others are hindering your success . Small squares touching-there is a traitor near you . Squares touching at the corners-you are threatened with theft . A well made triangle (Fig . 6)-unexpected luck in your affairs . A truncated triangle-your position is not safe . Two triangles touching-your position is stable . Crown of triangles-success in love . A large oval-marriage according to your wishes . Several ovals-success in your affairs . A circle (Fig. 7)-small present of money. Several circles touching-you will receive money very soon. A circle containing dots-you will soon have a baby . A circle containing three dots-it will be a boy. Scattered circles-do not waste the large sums which you will receive . Circle or oval crossed by lines (Fig . 8)disappointment corresponding to the number of cuts . A cross (Fig. 9)-you will hear of the death of a relative or friend . Two crosses (Fig . 9)-happy old age . Three crosses (Fig . 9)-you will attain a very good position . Numerous crosses-your existence will be troubled by passions . Crown (Fig . 10)-small wish coming true . Several crowns in groups (Fig . 10)-an influential person will give you a great success .

SCIENCES Crown with cross (Fig . 11)-an obstacle is in the way of your desire . Crown of crosses-omen of death . House (with roof and window-Fig . 12)happiness at home or in the family . House near a circle-you will soon own some property . House near a tree-your property will be in the country . House near a cross-it will be situate in town . House near a triangle-you will inherit it . House near a crown of crosses-you will end your days there . Window-you will be robbed . Window near a cross-a fine threatens you . Four-legged animal (Fig . 13)-generally favourable change of situation . A donkey-cares at home. A camel-money tightness at home . An elephant-success in your affairs . A tiger-your energy will save you . A lion-you will prevail over your enemies . A dog-you will have a faithful friend . A pig-beware of excesses . Human face (full face or profile) without other parts (Fig . 14)-beneficial influence from a new connection . Human head with other parts upwards (Fig . 15)-a protector is ready to look after you . Human head with other parts downwards (Fig . 16)-a slight connection will do you harm . Human profile only-efficacious protection . The human face (full face only)-someone loves you. Two human faces full face-you will share this love . Two faces in a circle-you will marry very soon . Two faces divided by a line-you will ask for a divorce .

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS

277

278

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 279 Two faces divided by a rose-marriage, Willow-you will weep much. long life and perfect health . Clover-you will receive a sum of money . Birds (Fig. 17)-pleasant news, quiet Several little mounts (Fig . 23)-beware happiness . of the company of dangerous people . Several fishes (Fig . 18)-great dis- Fork (Fig . 24)-small upset, small anger, appointment . small disappointment . One only-invitation to a meal . Group offorks (Fig . 24)-serious quarrel Serpent (Fig . 19)-calumny, jealousy, which may , lead to a break. betrayal, beware ! Tripod-violence will help you to Insects-unexpected annoyances . triumph over an enemy. A star or a flower (Fig . 20)-satisfied The letter M-some one is trying to kill love. you. Several stars or several fowers (Fig . 20)- The letter H-do not drink with your triumph and happiness in the home . enemies . Ship (Fig . 21)-a journey very soon. Thick and rounded blots-you will have Ship near a cross-journey on account a lawsuit. of a death in the family . Large and badly shaped blots-difficulties Ship near palms-legacy, fruitful in affairs. journey . Chain-love, perfect agreement . Palm or palmtree (Fig. 22)-money success, prosperity or distant journey . N.B .-The drawings are by Professor Oak-you will triumph over your Crozal. enemies . DESCRIPTION OF SOME ORACLES

COr s i E GROUNDS In order to obtain a clear, definite and legible oracle, dry properly (for 2 or 3 days) a few pinches of coffee which has been ground, pressed and passed through boiling water . When these grounds are thoroughly dry, put them in a saucepan going towards the fire, add a glass of water, heat on a gentle fire and take off just before boiling . Then pour these grounds with the water on a flat, very level, very white and very dry plate . Take this plate in both hands and shake in gently, moving it in all directions and blowing on it . You will then see the grounds separating little by little from the water, spreading and settling, finally sticking to the bottom of the plate which you will again tilt very carefully so that the water may run off . Allow to settle . Then you will see that the grounds have formed a large number of signs, drawings, silhouettes, which you will simply have to examine and interpret according to the foregoing explanations, remembering always that any vague or doubtful figure must not be taken notice of (except dots which may be examined with a magnifying glass) . For further details on this study of coffee grounds you may consult 1.

280 THE OCCULT SCIENCES special tables, such as those drawn up by Florent Gamier' who gives a somewhat different method of proceeding-or else the various booklets which, however, must not be relied on too much . The best of them is that of Daguesah . 2 Let us add in conclusion that Paul C . Jagot in his Treatise on Occult Sciences and Practical lLfagic derives divination from coffee grounds from the phenomenon of voyance by means of magic mirrors . But in the latter case voyance, instead of being direct, is obtained symbolically by an intermediary . Two other divinations which are similar and according to Paul Jagot derived from the same principle, are those by means of the white of eggs and of pins . 2. THE EGG AND LEAD An egg having been boiled in the shell, therefore having the yolk still quite liquid, take this egg, break it as if you were going to eat it, cutting the tip from the small end (and not from the big end) and having placed before you a sheet of white unruled paper, drop the yolk on to it drop by drop . The spots and splashes being thoroughly dry, all that you have to do is to interpret the signs and figures thus obtained, as in the case of coffee grounds . Another method, with the white of egg :Break a fresh egg and take out the yolk' ; pour the white into a large glass which is then filled with water, place it for 24 hours in a dry place without covering it, and then interpret . If you wish to question molten lead in the same circumstances and according to the same principles, pour quickly into a white or light coloured bowl full of cold water some molten lead which you have obtained by heating it until it has become liquid . The more or less thick and connected discs which are formed as the lead gets cold will form the designs which you can then interpre according to the same general principles . 3. SHELLS AND PINS Drop into a sieve seven small shells shaped like holy water basins, and two beans, one white and the other black . Shake your sieve seven times from left to right. Stop and examine the position of the shells

i The Future from Coffee Grounds or the Art of the Great Agrippa placed within the reach of everyone (Chacornac). The Revelations of Coffee Grounds by Daguesah (Nelsson) . Divination by coffee grounds seems to have been particularly in use in Italy where it was reduced to rules by Thomas Tomponelli, whose famous treatise has been translated into almost all European languages .

281 SECONDARY DIVINATIONS in relation to the beans ; look to see if they have turned over or not, that is to say whether you see their hollow or their domed sides . The following is a table of the positions obtained and their prophetic meaning :From 4 to 7 shells hollow side up near the white bean-good luck, success, happy marriage, long life . From 4 to 7 shells domed side up near the white bean-accident or illness but not fatal. From 4 to 7 shells hollow side up near the black bean-good luck interrupted by trials. From 4 to 7 shells domed side up near the black bean-business troubles . Shells in shape of cross domed side up near the white bean-mourning very soon . Shells in shape of cross hollow side up near the white bean-broken happiness . 4 shells in a circle hollow side up near the white bean-probable legacy . 4 shells in a circle hollow side up near the black bean-legacy and painful mourning. 4 shells domed side up, the black bean at a distance from the white bean--accident in travelling. If you are working with pins, hold them for a moment in the hand . Then take them in the other hand, so as to impregnate them with fluid. If you are working for another person, he must thus handle them. Then throw the pins a few at a time on to a white sheet which has previously been divided into twelve squares corresponding to the 12 solar houses (see Astrology) . Then explain the shapes according to the details given at the beginning of this chapter, confining yourself of course to those only which can possibly exist, that is those made of straight lines (squares, rectangles, etc .) 4. PAPER Write thirteen questions on thirteen pieces of paper and place them in a bowl without folding them and fill the bowl with water . A reply in the affirmative will belong to that question which is written on the first piece of paper which rises to the surface of the water . 5.

TWELFTH NIGHT CAKE

If it keeps for three months in a dry drawer without going mouldy -success of the matter enquired into .

282

THE OCCULT SCIENCES If the cake has gone slightly mouldy-the success of the matter is doubtful . If the cake has gone entirely mouldy-complete failure . 6. PRECIOUS STONES Scatter on a plate brilliant stones of different colours, but make a circle of them in the centre of which you will light a big short candle . Watch for the first stone which reflects the light . If it is a blue stone, look for early good luck . If it is a green stone, look for the fulfilment of a hope . If it is a red stone, look for a love affair . If it is a violet stone, look for mourning. If it is a yellow stone, look for unfaithfulness . If it is a grey stone, look for tears . If it is a garnet stone, look for a marriage. 7.

WATER

Ask a question which can be answered yes or no . Throw a pebble into a bowl of water and count the concentric rings which are formed . If the ripples are odd-favourable reply . If the ripples are even-unfavourable reply. 8.

THE RING

Sit down in front of a table on which you have placed an empty glass . Attach a ring to a hair and hold this hair between the thumb and the first finger of the left hand. Hold the ring above the glass and let it go down into it . The oracle will interpret the oscillations of the ring as follows :If the ring knocks against the left side of the glass-distrust your heart and the more so as unintentional hurts will be numerous . If the ring knocks against the right side self-interest is your dominating passion . If the ring knocks against the side away from the questionersuccess, good luck, happiness . If it knocks against the side near the questioner-misfortune, disappointments . 9.

THE SUN

Trace a circle in a spot on which the sun must presently shine . Write on pieces of paper at the rate of one on each piece the questions which interest you and which can be answered in the affirmative .

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS

283

Shuffle these papers after having turned them upside down and place them in the circle in such a manner that you are ignorant of the place of each question, and wait for the sun . The first paper on which it, shines will show which of your plans will be the first to be realised .

10. THE MOON

Young ladies, starting with the first day of May on which the Moon is visible, look at it on nine consecutive evenings, having a looking glass hidden in your pocket or your hand . Then on the night of the ninth day place this looking glass under your pillow, asking the star to show you in a dream your future husband. On the morrow go out early and give alms to the first beggar you meet. If it is a man, you will be married within the year to the man of whom you dreamt . If it is a woman, you will have to wait another year .

11. STEAM

Write on various pieces of paper the names of young men (or young women as the case may be) whom you may possibly get engaged to, or various matters, affairs in which you are engaged, etc ., and throw them, rolled like cigarettes, into a sieve over a saucepan of boiling water. That paper which will be first unrolled by the steam will give you a reply. Do not forget to put amongst the others a piece of white paper rolled the same as the others but on which you have written nothing. If this is the first to unroll, you will remain unmarried .

12. TREE BARK

Choose it broad and thin, put it into a bright fire and wait till it has caught . As soon as the flames have gone out, read, as in coffee grounds, the signs made on the black surface by the traces of the ash .

13. SOOT

Similarly interpret the designs and blots made on oilcloth or on a sheet of glass by a mixture of soot and oil stirred up together .

14. AIR AND WIND

Put on a table upside down a number of small squares of paper of the same size on which you have written various replies to the questions which you want answered . Gently move a fan over them, and the answer which fate intends for you will turn up .

284

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 15. EARTH

Fill five flower pots with exactly similar earth and plant in each on the same day the seed of the same kind of flower. Each pot corresponds to an expected event . The first to happen will be determined by the seed which has germinated first . As soon as a coin and hold If the cuckoo several times,

16. THE CUCKOO

you hear it sing, put your hand in your pocket, take it firmly, saying, " Cuckoo, shall I make my fortune ? " immediately sings twice, the reply is favourable ; if doubtful ; if once, no.

17 . THE DAISY

Everybody has consulted this popular oracle . How many believe in it ? Is it more ridiculous to believe in than others ? " I love you (or he loves me), a little, much, passionately, not at all ." Hope and fear of gentle lovers ! Precious avowals made by the white petals ! How many hearts you will yet fill with happiness or melancholy ! Others, occupied with plans, say yes and no, or similarly failure and success, etc .

18 . THE ENTRAILS OF ANIMALS

How many centuries back does this oracle go ! The soothsayers used to consult the throbbing entrails of the burnt offerings which sometimes were human beings . To-day, less cruel, we confine ourselves to sacrificing fowl or game . They are read as follows :If there are black intestines to the right-increase in the family . If there are black intestines to the left-loss of money . If the intestines are twisted-struggle, but success in the end . If there are intestines recently torn-discord . If there are intestines torn long ago-renewed harmony .

19. THE BLACK HEN

Magicians used this "magic animal," and divination by its help was called alectromancy . A circle was traced on the ground and divided into sections corresponding to the letters of the alphabet or to the number of replies required . In each section a grain of millet, or barley or of corn was placed . Then the hen was placed and the order in which it picked up the grains was noted, this order forming a word which gave the reply or the sequence of the events to come . In Tunisia a black cock which had had nothing to eat that day is used instead of the hen .

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 285 20. SHOES In order to know whether they will get married, girls throw one of their shoes from the foot down the stairs . If the shoe falls toe upward, there is no marriage ; if on the other hand the heel is upwards, then a marriage will take place after as many days, months or years as the shoe fell in steps . 21 . THE DANDELION Take a dandelion in seed and blow on it . If all the seeds fly off at once, you are loved passionately . If a few seeds remain, there may be some unfaithfulness . If many remain, indifference . LITTLE ORACLE FOR LOVERS Oracles for Lovers abound . Most of them are gaily fanciful . Many reproduce the information previously here given and interpreted in favour of or against love . From a small book on the subject we extract the following by way of distraction amongst so many serious matters :Needle-if it is broken while sewing, a young man thinks of the sewer . Matches-upset by a girl, early marriage if the whole box is upset . If any remain in the box, each one means a day, a week, a month or a year before the marriage takes place . Ring-given it is always a sign of love and token of happiness . Beware of breaking off if this ring is lost . Danger of divorce if it is broken . Danger of betrayal if it loses its shape owing to a blow . Stockings or socks unintentionally put on inside out on rising mean a present soon . Walking stick-accidentally broken by a girl-beware of a cruel husband. Scissors-broken, bad omen ; one blade broken, squabble ; both broken, break . Looking-Glass-given as a present-anxiety ; if it breaks, end of happiness . Horsehoe-found, good luck. ; found by two lovers together, complete happiness . Slipping-on fruit skin, flirtation ; on the lawn, fainting in the open air ; in the water, love and tears ; on parquet floor, fainting in an enclosed space . Garter-lost, proposal coming soon to the owner ; coming undone, beware ; found, love letter coming .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Hand-knocked against wood-you will be loved ; against irondo not trust . Sting-of a bee, passion ; of a wasp, danger ; of an ant, quarrel ; of a flea, small worries. Broken egg-sulks . Penny with a hole-good luck for the recipient . Happy home for engaged couple if it is given them . Glass-broken, good sign if it is a white glass ; if it is red, worries ; if green, hope disappointed ; if it is full of wine, lasting love .

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IV Onomantics We do not say Onomancy . Onomancy was and remains divination by names . The following is the opinion of the occultist Ely Star, the author of an onomantic Astrology entitled The Mysteries of the Horoscope, on this subject :Not satisfied with ascertaining the influences of the stars by the usual proceedings of Astrology, Ely Star, as we have seen, claims that we must add the influence of the name, that is to say the family seal (given by the family name) and individual signature (given by the personal name), the whole kabbalistically reduced to numbers . We have said that this complication seemed to us somewhat unnecessary and slightly fantastic. We do not intend in saying so to reject the curious ideas expressed by this scholar on the characteristics of names, but to separate Onomancy from Astrology, which may be added to it, but in our opinion not mixed up with it . In other words, this enables us to distinguish between Onomancy in which we have not very much faith, and Onomantics which we consider useful. To say a word, justly writes Ely Star, is to evoke a thought, to make it actual . Further, the magnetic power of the word is the beginning of all manifestation . This is why we find in the Gospel, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God ." To give a name is not merely to identify the being that bears it, but it is to devote it by the Word to the occult powers. Things are what they are made by naming them . The Word is blessing or curse . Thus names become beneficent or maleficent according to the influences attached to their elements, that is to say to their letters and to the numbers corresponding to those letters . The name is therefore a signature . Its very sound impresses us . In the abstract, for instance, Gamahut is an ugly name, and it is not surprising that it should have been borne by a murderer ; Noailles

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 287 is a beautiful name in its sonorousness which turns into limpidity, and we are glad that it should adorn a poetical talent as it adorned a family illustrious in history . Names have their own physiognomy, gentle or aggressive, honest or low . It is well known that family names were originally nicknames, and personal names have a wellknown meaning . How remarkable is the euphony of the first name given by believers to the Divine being, which is, as is well known, merely a collection of vowels :-I, E, 0, U, A, which became leouva, Ieova, Jehovah I Personal names, the only ones of which we shall speak here, without trying to attach a destiny to them, which seems to us to be going too far, have a hidden poetry, delicate but sure . Thus the Greeks gave the name Melanie to a dark girl, because melanie is a translation of the word brown (Melanesia, for instance, is that part of Oceania which was inhabited by dark people), Theophilus to a pious man (TheoGod ; philo-friend), etc . It could therefore almost be said of dark people, passing from the proper name to the common noun, that they were melanies, of pious men that they were theophiles, and similarly bridget could be called a servant, as the second word is a translation of the first, claudine an idiot, clemence a dark woman, flavia a fair one, bernard a hermit, philip a lover, etc . Thus an idea, a belief, a destiny were attached to names, and thus Onomantics led to Onomancy. But the idea has been to such an extent forgotten that the destiny has hardly any value left . So much was it believed that destiny was bound to the name that, apart from usual reminders of characteristics, names were invented which might bring good luck. What is the meaning of Celestine if not " protected by God", of Alexander (Alexo-I protect ; aner-men) if not " protected by men " ? And this faith in the mysticism of the name is found again in the fact that Catholics give to a child the name of a Saint who becomes its patron, its protector, and who is honoured, as well as the child, on the day of his feast . In short, personal names were adapted to those who bore them. It is a great pity that it is no longer so . However, it is not rare to find godfathers and godmothers give to their godchildren names which they like, which they hope will bring them luck . We are therefore not at all opposed to the principle of finding for newborn babies names which have a meaning, or at any rate are harmonious . It might be hoped that in the result they should correspond to the child when grown up, for there is no doubt that some names do not at all agree with the faces of those who bear . The best thing might be to give several personal names, so as to be able to choose, one day, if necessary, the one amongst the number which is the most suitable . Had not the Romans three names-the family name, the baptismal name, and

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the surname which often was the only one remembered, the only one that passed to posterity . You know Tullius Marcus Cicero . Cicero was the surname . It is the one which to-day glows in our memories . Marcus has been forgotten, and the memory of Cicero has remained. The following, therefore, belongs more to Onomantics than to onomancy . We shall describe what the bearer of this or that personal name ought to be rather than what he is or will become . None-theless by way of information, and so as not to grieve those who believe in the luck of a personal name, we shall also give what Onomancy claims to attach to it in the way of prediction . Let us begin with the common feminine personal names . 1 Alba : means the white one . Hence whiteness, purity . The Albas are (in principle, we repeat it) naive, upright, not very firm . Sometimes mystical, they remain unmarried or become nuns. Agnes : the pure, the gentle one . Fragility, tenderness . The Agneses are (or ought to be) small delicate gentle women, timid and ready to sacrifice themselves. Agatha : the precious, the good, the brilliant one . Lively pretty women, musical, fond of pleasure and the arts, intelligent enough to succeed, but afraid of strong emotions . Adela : the unknown, the noble one . Great coquettes, sprightly, changeable, not very reliable, well made physically ; unfaithful companions and careless mothers . If dark these defects are slighter. Anna : the gracious, the merciful one . The personal name for kindly women, of sane mind, frank, courageous, good wives, good mothers, charitable . Generally not very pretty but having good eyes. Angela : the appointed one . There is something of the angel in them, they are fair, gliding, light, open-faced with blue eyes, dreamy, poetical, becoming mystical in later life, or neurasthenic . Alice : the conqueror . Suits the haughty tall statuesque woman ; but there are small pleasant and proud Alices . Great courtesans who rule by their charm . Amy : the beloved . They are gracious, pleasant, good, knowing how to keep love, simple, wise, modest, sure of long happiness and a calm old age. Augusta : the feminine of Augustus . Obviously greatness, nobility, intelligence, pride. They are predisposed to broken loves, which subsequently make them cry in silence . Aurelia : the halo. A somewhat pretentious name . Intelligence and will-power . It is little used, and not very appropriately . There is little attraction in the word, hence the bearer is apt to become an old maid . Aline : the upright, the dainty one . Gentleness, indolence, integrity . You see a small gracious woman, somewhat stout, loving and gentle, with dainty tastes, feeling, and a sense of duty . i These details are in part a summing up of those given by J . Renoux in his Meaning Names .

of Personal

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Adrienne : the beautiful one . Lively, coquette, alert and particular . Not much energy, but calm and a little childish . Tendency to languor. Good company . Barbara : the stranger, the aged one. This name should not be given to a baby . It evokes a stern and strict elderly woman, sentimental but reserved, a faultfinding and thin old maid,'lover of cats and parrots . Bertha : the beautiful one . It is short, simple and gentle . You see a loving little woman, good to her friends. a worker, pleasant and fair . Economical perhaps and very practical, somewhat reserved . Beatrix : the blessed, the valorous one . Beatrices owe it to themselves to be beautiful, noble, brave, combative, artistic, original . Dante loved a Beatrix . Bridget : the peaceful, the serving one . The Bridgets are good, devoted persons, elderly, retiring, affable . They love children, look after old people . Not much youthfulness . Cecilia : St . Cecilia is the patron of musicians . Harmony, intelligence and passion. A voice bound to be pleasant . Good heart, but very touchy . Clara : the luminous one . A Clara is alive, nervous, upright, pretty, dark, supple, small but well made . She marries, becomes jealous and loves less than she is loved . Claudia : the silly one. The author of " Claudine " has made her tender rather than stupid, and this name now evokes a shrewd young woman, but remains sensual, gentle and childish. Cornelia : hard as horn . And Cornelia is a cornelian name, denotes a virile and firm temperament, a noble and practical nature, somewhat cold physically, eager morally. Clemence : who pardons. A sensible, slow, not very expansive woman, generous modest indulgent. Not very beautiful but with a maternal feeling . Clemence grows old, happy, childish and greedy . Charlotte : the strong one . Judgment, good heart, energy, wisdom due to deep thought and true integrity . A Charlotte is active, hard working, a good companion, pleasant, fairly elegant. Her tastes are not very aesthetic . She is a simple and sane bourgeoise . Camille : free. This name is male as female . Camilles are smart, shrewd, forward, boyish . They naturally please, are good company and make good wives . Colette : slender neck . Oh, what a pretty name for an exquisite woman with a dainty mind, beautiful eyes, full of life and soul ! Carmen : melody. The Carmens are keen and self-willed, proud and vindictive, pretty and fantastic, small, nervous, restive . What attractive eyes, what a pretty smile ! They inspire strong passions in a Spanish way . One always dreads a tragic death for them . Diana : good sense and youthful strength . We think of the Greek Dianas, proud, robust, sporting . They are healthy women, well balanced, magnificent, selfwilled . They dominate . Denise : reminder of Dionysos . Charm and gentleness . Gentle natures but without strong passions . Eva : life, the mother of men. The Evas are pretty, inquisitive, thoughtful . They marry young and have many children.

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Elizabeth : greeted by God . Fortunate personal name which gives charming temper and natural powers . Eulalie : I speak well . Hence studious, and a traveller, good storyteller, imaginative, romantic . Estelle : the star. Name of pride, of elegance and of health. Euphrasia : I charm. Yes, but it no longer charms, the village name of the woman with many children and a drunken husband . .Esther : the secretive one . Timidity, moral qualities, not very pretty but know how to please. They love reading, meditation, the theatre, dreaming and melancholy . Eugenie : the well born . Obvious name for the strong dark woman with beautiful black eyes . Faithfulness, love of jewels and dress . Coquettish, but remains honest. Marries rather late . Emily : Emily is patient, gentle, but somewhat stubborn . She marries young, but often has no children. If red she is more attractive than if fair, but less so than if dark . Excellent at work . Felicia : the well-treated one . Independent, more than ambitious, of wide knowledge . Little heart and much aplomb . Frances : the fearless one. Frances is small, well made, pretty, daring, cheery, skilful, lively, pleasant . Fernande : is more than ambitious, self-interested, brave and often good, skilful, hard working and self-willed . Georgette : often pretentious, although not very well made . Often also thin, silly, lying, eager for adventure and cowardly when in danger . Sometimes, however, a Georgette has good heart. Germaine : a Germaine is kind, gentle, soft, malleable, loving, sympathetic . Genevieve : who inhabits the woods and breeds courage. And she has courage, under a simple, delicate and graceful appearance . She is upright, noble, strongwilled, right minded . She has charm, and often the convent attracts her. Harriet : belonging to a powerful family. German name. Intelligence, calm, strong will, positivism, suppleness . Hortensia : who comes from the garden . Pretty in youth, embittered in old age. Fades like the flower . Helen : who comes from Greece. A delicate name which suits beauty, elegance and gentleness . Medium intelligence, but dainty mind . Causes perhaps some illusion, but so charming ! Isabella : French substitute for Ysabeau, for Elizabeth . No pride, but dissimulation . The Ysabeaus were often ardent, cruel, unjust, vindictive. The Isabellas are less so . Julia : born in July . Also graceful in the shape of Juliet . Good feelings, dainty ideas . Will-power moderate but sustained . Constancy in affection . Somewhat touchy . Jacqueline : peasant name . Grace which soon fades, hence may develop into a difficult character . Josephine : judged of God . Soft nature, not very enlightened, common . Superficial kindness . Silliness and vanity .

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Jane : Hope, shelter, grace . Name of tenderness rather than of beauty . The Janes are kind at times, devoted to excess, often sensual, sometimes vicious, always impressionable. Louise : the gentle one . It is a somewhat ordinary name, simple, timid, amiable, ardent. Lucy : the luminous one. Smart name, solid intellect, lively character, will-power unequal. Sentimental and romantic in youth . Charm without beauty but which is loved . Leonie : comes from leo, lion. Decided, touchy, vindictive character . Practice, activity, broad morality . Liane : name of entwining, of daring, of elegance . Not much heart . Leaning to carelessness and love of money . Mary : the very high one. Name which has fallen from its high estate, originally superb, made for imagination, a great heart, strong willpower . But it has fallen towards easy pleasures, common tastes-with exceptions . Margaret : the pearl. Excellent name, generally well suited to women at once firm and gentle . Melanie : the dark one. They are all like this, seductive, easy, somewhat talkative, made for calm . Magdalen : fair, pretty, sensible, expansive, dainty, passionate. Marian : (Mary-Ann) . Sympathetic, lively and gentle nature, conciliating and firm, not very elegant . Martha : means from Bethany, and the attracting one. You see them dark, faultfinding, loving pleasure, somewhat egoistical, easy going, made for success, but with frail health . Marcelle : graceful name . Moderate intellect, hard heart, daring . Natalie : rising star . They bring luck . Cheerful character . One likes to meet them . Paula : the little one . Pauline, Paulette . Domineering nature, especially if it is the male name turned into Paule . Independent women, unequal, nervous, hot or cold, egoistical, obstinate . Rachel : the sheep . Rachels are passionate, sensual, profoundly intelligent and of great personal charm, even if it is not due to beauty . Renee : the Queen . Generally fairly tall, alert, sentimental, not very sensitive, decided, brave . Rose : the flower . The flower of flowers. Much charm and passion . But with thorns and ephemeral. They come, they charm, they pass on, coquettish, independent, not very sensitive . Sophia : wisdom . Name which is falling into disuse . It is a pity. It stood for intelligence, calm will, personal worth, solid qualities . This is probably the reason, alas ! why it has ceased to please . Sylvia : Rustic poetry . Charming simplicity . Childishness . Moderate and chimerical intellect . Susanna : the lily. Clear intellect, practical common sense, pride and nobility . Captivating beauty . Great self-respect . Correct behaviour . Simplicity apparent rather than real .

292

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Simone : the heretic . Imagination, sensuality . You see them fair, somewhat stout, sentimental, smiling, elegant, amiable . Their lives are somewhat exciting . Theresa : means she who heals the bite of the serpent, and the untamed one . Name for a sensitive expansive affectionate character, sometimes passionate, kind and cheerful. Yvonne : full of grace . Name very distinguished for real beauty, active intellect calm and persevering will-power . MEN'S NAMES Adam : the old man, the father . It is said that his name brings bad luck . And yet there have been famous Adams. Must we believe that it induces laziness, carelessness, spite, vice I Augustus : the great one . Name of intelligence and strength, of good luck, success and fertility . Antony : who carries himself well ; and inestimable . Name of health, bad head and good heart . It produces pleasant companions, men liking manual labour, sensitive self-willed men . Anatole : Dawn, and he who rises high . Name which in its origin was proud, has been somewhat vulgarised by the people, but is now again finding its high place among the elite . The bearer is in danger of a violent death . Albert, Alberic : of good birth . Cold imagination, practical common sense, broad minded . Armand : the formidable one . Mocking, positive, tenacious, original mind . Good looking, with successes among women, but, these getting to his head, misses his opportunity, and finally marries anyone . Andrew : the conqueror . Pleasant appearance, simple manners, good company . Marries late . It has been observed that many Andrews are bitten by animals, or lose the sight of one eye through some awkward person barging into them . Adrian : courageous . Moderate in everything . . Manual skill. Upright character, but easily embittered . Little will-power . Alphonse : all afire . The name has become sadly common . On principle, nice fellow, madcap, empty heart . Benjamin : son of my right hand . Made to be petted . Intelligence and gentleness. Generally well balanced . Bernard : solitary, and strong as a bear . Voluptuous, thoughtless, sometimes " lucky ." With some exceptions not much energy . Charles : the strong . Charles is generally practical, gifted in commerce, of solid mentality, skilful, hardworking, self-willed, looking after his own interests . Daniel : judgment of God . Slightly fantastic and sentimental name, somewhat soft, affectionate, of alert mind and conciliating character . Love of simplicity . Eugene : the well born . Male qualities and defects of Eugenie . With this name a somewhat unhappy marriage may be looked for . Not very keen on work and somewhat swaggering . Ernest : grave, serious . Simple, obliging, strong nature . Good husbands. Apt for diplomacy .

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293 Emmanuel : God with him . Very good brain. Graceful manners . Sensuality. Somewhat easily influenced. Edmund : happy. Good fellow, somewhat timid, generally fair, regular, hearty, distinguished . A moderate intellect which easily adapts itself . Pleasant comradeship. Emile : obliging . And loving fighting . A sympathetic name, strength, loyalty, courage, energy. Ordinary intelligence and obstinacy. Heart of gold. Excellent husband . Francis : the fearless. See under Frances, and put what is there into the masculine. Ferdinand : seductive, mocking, imaginative, cold, prudent, cheerful by fits . Gaston : the host . Simple and without side, independent and assimilative . Calm and full of initiative . Often fair. Broad ideas agreeing with moral integrity and without excessive bourgeoisie . Chief defect, thoughtlessness . Delightful fellow and excellent husband . Gabriel : the man of God . Fighting and nervy strength . Somewhat proud manners but generous heart . A Gabriel is worth getting to know . He is good at patient work . He is obliging and can love. Germain : Sincere. Rustic name of a solid and firm man full of good qualities . Gilbert : brilliant companion. Denotes sensitiveness, gentleness, firm and wheedling will-power, great inner activity . George : who is of the earth . Somewhat excessive vivacity, apparent good nature . Good looking, good health . Henry : A Henry is hard working, somewhat hard of heart, rather keen on money, well made, meant for an easy life and a fair number of children by marriage . Hippolyte : lover of horses. He has clear thoughts, a passionate temperament, is slightly presumptuous . Joseph : saviour . This . name betokens simplicity, even childishness, calm, honesty, perseverance . But for some unknown reason he is often betrayed by women . Julian : nothing original . Dull nature, without noticeable qualities or defects . Calm and retiring. John : entrance door. Nice, simple and gentle name, breathing true poetry, selfcontrol, noble independence, love of truth, a reserve which conceals high feeling . James : the supplanter . Somewhat mobile character . Democratic tastes. A friendship which gives itself without reserve . Loves the soil . Jerome : Connected thought . Anxious to succeed . Great practical commonsense . Strong willed . Leo : lion . And yet a Leo does not seem attracted by noble pride, or sure of his strength or courageous . Many are sensual, supple, mobile, self-interested and not very interesting . Lucian : comes from lux, light . Middle class name which denotes economy, egoism, carelessness, and yet a Lucian is not spiteful . Too smart perhaps, boasting . Women don't trust them . Mark : born in March . Short dry name, betokening strength, decision, success with women and in business . Michael : like God. Pride and oddness . Artistic sense . Jealousy. Independence .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Nicholas : victory. And yet it is a calm, modest name . A Nicholas usually is a good fellow, good son, good husband, good father, somewhat timid . Oliver : bearing fruit . Delightful mediaeval name full of chivalrous bravery . Our Olivers still seem noble, sensitive, affectionate, reserved, always equable and sane . Oscar : rough . Nasty name exuding boasting, egoism ; but at the same time it contains intelligence and suppleness . Aristocratic at first, it has become quaintly middle-class . Peter : says what it means, but it must not be taken to mean hardness of heart. What it does mean is firmness. Fine name too much left to the lower classes . The Peters are upright, somewhat careworn, not very idealistic . They are wrongly looked upon as utopian, limited, remaining unmarried . They are somewhat naif it is true and somewhat obstinate, but at bottom good fellows . Prosper : happy . Intellect somewhat slow but practical . Little physical charm . Some vanity. Philip : the lover . Charm . Not much energy . Passion. Not much judgment. Will-power . Not much intelligence . Is good looking, will probably succeed with simple minded women . Shines and deceives . Raphael : who delights . Winged poetic graceful name, betokening art . Physical and moral beauty . One has a feeling that Raphaels spend themselves much, use themselves up and die young . Raymond : giver of advice . This name pleases women . Sensitive and melancholy, a Raymond can think and love . He is gentle and weak, at once romantic and quiet. He is afraid of his passion. Richard : here we have the strong man, solid in body, mind and heart . Keenness, daring, independence. He is proud and susceptible, likes emulation . Well made, often fond of sports . Robert : brilliant orator. He is said to be distrustful, slow to understand, susceptible, tenacious, keen on money, self-willed . Sebastian : respectable . Serious, settled, pleasant name . Equally happy whether married or not . Severine : grave and stern . Intellect . Patience. Love of paradox . Stephen : crowned . Serious natural qualities redeeming a not very cultured mind . Suppleness and decision . Very alert judgment . Stephens generally make their fortune . They frequently remain unmarried . They become wealthy bachelor uncles who are petted in their old age . Sylvester : who is of the fields . Loving nature, simple, good, enlightened, sharp, somewhat cunning . Theodore : Ample abundant fantastic imagination . Frankness . Despises unknown persons. Thomas : Popular name . Broad commonsense, strong qualities of the heart rather than of the mind . Hard work and thoughtfulness . Moderate imagination . No Tony : artificial name . Sustained will-power . enemies . Good match. Success . Victor : triumphant . Very ambitious, that is to say more will-power, than heart and intelligence . 294

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William : formerly noble, now popularised . Mobile complicated diplomatic character, capricious, enterprising, odd, impressionable . Xavier : gentle, graceful pleasant manners . Delightful mind . Acute sensitiveness . Gift of pleasing . To the above let us add the etymology of a few other fairly well known names :Abel : he who weeps. Abraham : illustrious father . Achilles : who has beautiful lips . Adolphus : paternal help . Agrippina : born feet foremost . Alcides : strong . Alexander : who protects the warriors. Alfred : very quiet . Ambrose : immortal. Amelia : powerful. Anastasia : who restores to life . Ann : gracious . Anselm : helmeted companion . Aristides : the best made . Arsene : energetic character . Bertha : illustrious and beautiful . Blanche : pure . Caroline : brave . Casimir : master in his own house . Catherine : sincere . Caesar : born with hair . Chrysostom : mouth of gold . Claud : lame. Cleo : glorious . Clotilde : illustrious daughter . Cora : girl. Cyr, Cyprian : lord, master . David : well beloved . Dennis : diviner. Dominic : master of the house. Dorothy : gift of God. Dreyfus : three footed . Edith : noble. Eleanor : conqueror. Emma : protector . Eusebius : pious . Evaristus : the best .

Felieian : happy . Frederick : who brings peace. Gerard : strong in war . Gertrude : who protects the house . Gervase : estimable . Gisela : servant . Gregory : watchful . Hubert : brilliant mind. Hugh, Hugo : serious thinker . Ignatius : unknown . Irene : peaceful . Irma : of German race. Isaac : who laughs . James : the supplanter . Jerome : the sacred name . Judith : who praises . Landry : rich in the land . Lambert : powerful in the land . Luke, Lucas : luminous . Mark, Marcel, Martin : of March, brave . Matthew, Matilda : gift of the Lord . Maurice : black. Maxim : the greatest. Mederick : cheerful . Noah : beautiful, radiant . Onesimus : helpful. Pascal : passenger. Raoul : adviser. Remi : the rower. Roger : asked . Simeon : answered . Solange : unique . Valentine : in good health . Vincent : who restrains himself . Yves : watchful .

It will be seen that names which resemble each other have the

296 THE OCCULT SCIENCES same root, which increases the hints given above . Examples of names which have the same meaning :Adalbert, Adelaide, Adela, Albert, Albertine . Claire, Clara, Clarice . Cyr, Cyprian, Cyrien, Cyril, Cyrin . Etienne, Stephan, Stephanie, Stephen, Steven, Stepan, Fanny . Francois, Francis, Francesco, Franz . Leo, Leon, Leonie, Leonce, Leonard, Leontine, Leopold . Matthew, Mate, Mathias, Matilda, Matteo, Maffeo, Matthys . Maur, Maurice, Moreau, Morel, Morin, Morris . Nicholas, Nicaise, Nicanor, Nicol, Nicostrate, Nicolai . V Voyance and Psychometry We thought that it would hardly be possible to omit dealing in this chapter with divination by clairvoyance, although this is a hyperpsychic phenomenon like those that are dealt with in the second part of the book. We rely here on the authority of Mr . Jagot, who includes clairvoyance and cartomancy as well as magic mirrors among the intuitive divinatory arts ; and it is from his remarkable Treatise of Occult Sciences and Practical Magic that we extract the substance of the fifth division of the present chapter . Mr. Boirac, the Rector of the Academy of Dijon, who has taken such a great interest in hyperpsychical phenomena, has given the name of metagnomy to the perception of persons or things situate outside the radius of the physical senses of the seer . This vision through space may surely be described as intuitive divination . We give four examples :Dr . Cloquet having in 1829 magnetically put a woman to sleep so as to remove her breast, Dr . Chapelain at the same time put her daughter to sleep, whereupon the latter described step by step the state of her mother, and told him that the mother would die on the following day without suffering or death agony, and this happened . Further the autopsy revealed that the clairvoyant had seen in great detail the condition (really terrible) of the internal organs of the patient . Dr . Joire, having put a medium, Miss D ., to sleep, made with her an experiment of crystal vision, of which we shall speak later in that part of the book dealing with Magic Sciences . He placed before her on a black mat a crystal ball, told her that she was going to see the portrait of a gentleman whom she did not know, and asked her to tell him what she noticed particularly . She did so at the end of a few

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 297 moments, describing minutely a lady's brooch with a small portrait surrounded with gold, stating the place where this brooch was (in a box), the cupboard which contained it, the room and its furniture . Notes having been taken, the correctness of all these details was checked in a town 60 kilometres away. The operator alone knew of the existence of the jewel . He has related this fact of metagnomy and many others in his book entitled " Psychic and Supernormal Phenomena ." Here is another of his experiments :Placing his usual medium Prima Nitija before a crystal ball, he asked him to describe exactly what he saw there . What the medium saw was a woman in outdoor clothes, with hat on, ready to go out, a man near her with a walking stick in his hand, waiting for her . Nitija recognises the woman, gives her name, adds that she is looking for something-a key which she finally finds on a shelf in a cupboard, then she goes out . Questioned the next day, the lady, much astonished, admits the correctness of the facts as to her looking for a key, then gets angry with the man who was with her, being surprised that she should be spied upon (!) A correspondent of C . Flammarion told the famous astronomer that in 1867, being then in Odensa (Denmark), he used to meet a lawyer of the name of Balle connected with a well known hypnotiser called Hansen, who frequently hypnotised the lawyer . One day the correspondent asked Hansen, who had just put Balle to sleep and had reached the stage of clairvoyance and with his consent to visit in mind his mother who lived at Roeskilde . He did so, saying that he saw the lady ill but not seriously so in a house in the street called Skomagerstraede . How could this be, since she did not live there? But a few days later this was confirmed by a letter telling that the lady had felt unwell and had had herself taken to the street in question . Side by side with these facts of voyance of places there are facts of voyance of dates . Here is one quoted by Dr . Liebault, which is very important, as it is also connected with chiromancy . He says' that in January, 1886, a certain Mr. de Ch . came to tell him that having in 1879 consulted, Mme . Lenormand, the famous chiromancer, 2 the latter, having examined his hand, told him that he would lose his father in a year, that he would become a soldier, but would soon leave the army, would marry young, have two children and die at the age of 26 . Now, each of the first five prophecies having come true, he came, much worried about the sixth, to ask if there were no means of escaping it . Dr . Liebault tried to drive out these black thoughts by deep sleep and suggestion . He did not succeed, ' In his Suggestive Therapeutics . ' Not to be mistaken for Miss Lenormand who died in the middle of the 19th century .

298 THE OCCULT SCIENCES but handed him over to one of his colleagues, who was successful . Freed from his obsession, Mr . de Ch . went away happily . Alas 1 soon after Dr . Liebault heard of his death . The unfortunate man had not escaped his fate. Surely, concludes Mr . Jagot, in this case Mme . Lenormand acted as clairvoyant rather than as chiromancer, as in the latter part it is difficult to give such exact details . Another case extracted from the Annals of Psychic Sciences :Lady A . discovers one day (in 1896) the disappearance of a considerable sum which had been placed in a travelling bag, the latter itself having been locked up in a cupboard . She calls on a clairvoyant, Mrs . E. The latter consults the coffee grounds, then the cards, and tells her that the theft has been committed by a member of the staff of the house and not by a stranger, describes the topography of the flat of Lady A ., tells how the theft has been committed (the bank notes having been withdrawn from the bag one by one without forcing the lock) . She further added that the thief would not be caught, but going on from theft to crime, would one day suffer the last penalties of the law . Two years later the thief was found and arrested for murder . He was a former footman of Lady A ., none other than the sinister Marchandon . Mrs. E ., it will be seen, combined three forms of metagnomyknowledge of the past, distant sight and foresight of events concerning a third party . To some extent related to clairvoyance is psychometry, the ability of perceiving the fluid impregnations of things or persons and the astral images which remain in the aura of things and persons. We shall see presently what it is that is called aura, and we shall say a few words as to the virtual images of events and as to their formation. Here we will only remember that if the psychic emanations of each of us leave a trace, in the same manner things are impregnated with the radiations of those who touch them and thus retain a part of their aura, that is the pictured remembrance of the events which concern them and in which they have been mixed . That is why, when a psychometrist places an article on his forehead with the purpose of " making it speak " he perceives little by little a series of pictures relative to the destiny of the article . The classic example of this kind of phenomena is given by Papus who made a series of experiments before a meeting of scientists and writers to which he had brought a friend gifted with psychometry, and to whom someone offered for divination an antique watch. The medium first saw a royal court at the time of Mme . de Pompadour and a duel, then a scene under the Revolution where an old woman mounted the scaffold, then a hospital where a surgical operation was

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 299 being performed. Now the owner of the watch, utterly astounded, admitted that it had come to him from an ancestor who had been killed in a duel during the reign of Louis XV, that it had passed through the hands of an ancestress who was guillotined under the Terror, and that, having long forgotten it among his heirlooms, he had worn it on the day when an operation was performed on his wife . To Mr. Phaneg, one of the most able and most learned of psychometrists of the present day, a photograph is given . He puts it to his forehead, and soon finds himself in an inn where everything is in disorder and where a lady and a child seem to be in a state of terror . Not far off soldiers arrive, invade the house, force the doors and carry off the lady and the child . Mr. Phaneg's vision stops . Then he is told that the photograph is that of a lady captured by the Germans in a village in the east of France during the war of 1870 . In short, concludes Papus, an article may carry its history written invisibly around it, just as a human being carries around him " a radiation invisible to the human eye, but perceptible to the trained soul." In this radiation are inscribed in the form of pictures the results of our thoughts and our deeds . This radiation is termed aura, and there is an aura for each of the three principles which form the human body-a physical aura, an astral aura, a mental aura . 1 It is this radiation which accounts for sympathy and antipathy ; it is by this radiation that a trained occultist discovers the value of a man much more than from his features . It is possible to become a trained psychometrist, claims P. Jagot, for each one of us possesses this faculty more or less . But it requires very strong will-power, practice for an hour a day at least, absolute concentration, the stopping of the course of thought and the obtaining of mental passivity to such an extent that on applying an article to the forehead and keeping it there by a bandage it becomes possible to evoke a series of pictures which shall disclose the main features of its history . 2 We might also say a word about magic mirrors . But as it is necessary in certain cases to follow a ritual, we refer the reader for these to the chapter of Magic Sciences. 1 It is this latter, well known in religious tradition, which forms the halo (aureole) round

the heads of the Saints. I In order to practise psychometry, which is absolutely free of danger, it is best in the beginning, according to P. Piobb, to use letters or postcards from acquaintances . Darkness or twilight are best. Experiments should be made every day at the same hour, taking care not to become impatient. The time will always come when pictures are formed, at first vague, then more and more distinct (the face of the writer, the place where it was written, where it was posted, etc .) Having obtained success with written documents, any kind of article may then be taken . And the very oldest will thus reveal the civilisations of the past .

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On the other hand, since we have spoken of the possibility of the impregnation of objects by physical fluids, let us mention those truly extraordinary phenomena which are termed gamahes. Gamahes are stones which bear most curious signs of which it is impossible to say whether they are natural or the result of a fluidic impregnation . King Pyrrhus had an agate in which could be seen the nine Muses dancing. In Venice, in the Church of St . George there used to be a block of marble on which were drawn the Crucifix with the nails and the wounds of our Lord, and an altar of veined marble on which a death's head grinned . Albert the Great speaks of a block of marble which, sawn in two, revealed the head of a crowned king painted perfectly . In Pisa was seen on a stone an old hermit sitting near a brook with a bell in his hand . In Constantinople there was a John the Baptist dressed in a camel skin . In 1769 could be seen in the right aisle of the Cathedral in Paris a Christ crucified iri a block of black marble placed in the wall of the choir . Is all this the work of Nature ? Look at broken pebbles . You will see images inscribed on them, landscapes, heads, figures, letters . Gamahes may be flat, hollow or in relief, of one colour or of several . Chance ? It is by no means certain . Remember the figures obtained in molten lead, in coffee grounds, etc . It is said that these pictures may be formed as on a seeing retina-a cross may appear on a pebble which is broken by a fervent Christian whilst he is thinking of the emblem of the cross, a railway engine may show vaguely on stones which witness a railway accident . Can the stone itself register an impression ? Who knows ? Lightning does sometimes turn photographer ! In August 1850, a young girl was standing at a window facing a walnut tree at the moment of a flash of lightning ; a picture of the tree was found on her body . In September 1857 lightning struck a tree under which a woman and the cow she was looking after were sheltering . The cow was killed, but its picture was engraved on the chest of the fainting woman . Ordinary photography is in short a flat gamahe . It is well known that the root of the mandragora resembles the genital organs of man. In Holland the picture of a priest with stole and chalice has been found in a tree sawn in two . And do not pregnant women see marks develop on their skin in certain cases of fear or strong emotion or envy ? The review Psychica has on several occasions given cases of naevi in animals, such as a date inscribed on a sack of flour being reproduced on the bodies of two kittens born near the sack ; in the eye of a chicken the portrait of a person disliked by the hen ; and also on the two sides of a calf otherwise well made the picture on one side of a man who

SECONDARY DIVINATIONS 301 apparently wanted to run, with his arms raised ; on the other side that of a dog with its mouth open . In the latter case the owner said that he remembered very well that during the time the cow was in calf it was chased and frightened by the farm dog, and that he himself ran after his too faithful guardian, scolding it and raising his arms . Mr. Schwaeble, in his Problem of Evil, says that a horse slipping on a stone and suddenly startled may well form a gamahe, that is to say the picture of its head on a piece of stone . He mentions " the Tree of the ten thousand pictures ' seen by Father Hue in the Lamaist Convent at Koun-Boum in Thibet which bears on its leaves and its bark pictures of Thibetan characters inscribed which are renewed each spring . How can these phenomena, which resemble each other after all, be explained ? Let us leave pure chance on one side . As to some of them it might perhaps be claimed that they are of ectoplasmic origin. It is well known that ectoplasm is the exteriorisation, in whole or in part, of sensitiveness in the shape not only of fluid but of a vaporous substance which can be seen and photographed . It might be assumed, following the lightning, the vagaries of which we mentioned just now, that a being under the stress of a strong emotion might exteriorise his picture, or, which amounts to the same thing, that a very impressionable person may evoke on his own body the picture of a exterior object . Certain psychists who have studied very deeply problems of transcendental occultism claim that the larvae of the invisible intervene in these strange occurrences . But this is Magic pure and simple . We had already touched upon it in discussing divining mirrors . Let us approach it deliberately in our second part which will provide us more astonishment and valuable information .

SECOND PART THE MAGICAL SCIENCES Magic, Hermetic Philosophy are rational, positive, for they proclaim the constancy of natural laws ; but they teach that the field of operation of these laws is infinite and that most of them are still unknown to men. Hence the miraculous, supernatural appearance, the extraordinary aspect of some phenomena which in reality are very simple.

F. JOLLIVET-CASTELOT .

CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY IN principle Magic should stand at the beginning of an Encyclopaedia

of Occult Sciences, for it is in fact the first scientific, religious, moral and political doctrine of Humanity . It is the traditional science of the secrets of Nature, and in the beginning it contained them all . It is the collection of the knowledge which its owners did not wish to reveal to the common herd incapable of understanding it and in whom it might engender a fatal pride . Magic is the old name of Occultism, the science of the philosophers of India, of Chaldea, of Persia, of Egypt, who were called Magi . I Magic formulae are found in the Vedas, in the Egyptian ritual, in the Chaldean books, in the Hebrew Kabbala . " Magic," writes Jollivet-Castelot, " is by no means, as most outsiders imagine, the negation of Science . Quite on the contrary Magic is Science, but Science with syntheses, almost integral Science, its horizons being the Absolute, the Infinite in Unity . " Magic therefore dominates the narrow, childish, earth-bound Science of to-day, with the whole of its greatness and unique splendour . It is not, in truth, Science which will ever explain Magic to the people, but it is Magic which will progressively cause to be understood the doctrines of science which to-day are still in their infancy ; it is Magic which will develop in their true sense the apparent mysteries of Nature, the present attempts at methods, at systems and at theories . " In truth Magic is the knowledge of the action and the combination of the forces of the Universe (there are none other in reality, as nothing can exist outside Nature which makes up everything in the three cosmic dimensions) the study of their conduct, their involution, their evolution ."

From India, where it seems to have had its birth, Magic passed to Chaldea, where, according to Diodorus of Sicily, a sacred tribe 1 Besides the word Magus is derived from the Greek Magos and the Chaldean Magdhum, variations of the words Mog, Megh, Magh, which in Zend meant Priest, Wise, Excellent .

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306 THE OCCULT SCIENCES was entirely occupied with occult sciences. Thence it conquered the world of -antiquity. It is found amongst the Cabiri and the Etruscans, in Greece in Homeric times, in short everywhere . But for a long time already it had constituted a special part of Occultism and was differentiated from the other sciences . It is probable that from the first days of Christianity various sects were formed which preserved what they took to be the true Faith in God . They were called Gnostics . Gnosis flourished in the third century, in the Alexandrian Schools under Plotinus, Porphiry, Jamblichus who seems to have joined Theurgy to Magic so as to prevent its deviation . Theurgy, or White Magic, intercourse with the celestial spirits, would thus be the pendant and the opposition to Black Magic or Goetia, intercourse with the infernal spirits . As will be seen, Magic at that time already had a fairly precise meaning. Amongst the famous Magi (of whom the three Kings who, led by the Star, came to the Crib to bring to the newborn Jesus their gifts and their worship, formed part) we must mention Moses and Solomon, those admirable and powerful leaders of men, Hermes Trismegistes, Appolonius of Thyana, the Emperor Julian, the Sorcerer Merlin, Raymond, Lullius, Albert the Great, Paracelsus, names which sometimes seem legendary, names of strange deep minds who also practised alchemy and other occult sciences and in our own days men like Eliphas Levi, Stanislas de Guaita, Sar Peladan, Papus . Truly Magic becomes modernised like every other intellectual activity, as we shall see presently .) Naturally the Church waged war on the Magi, or rather on the Magicians (for the word Magi is better confined to the Wise Men of old and a few modern ones, and Magicians used for those who specialised in Magic) . It purposely confounded them with the Sorcerers (who in fact also often practised Magic), fearing their power and their authority . Hence, in order to escape from its persecutions, the Magicians, alchemists and other custodians of the occult tradition, concealed their knowledge in bizarre formulae or under the veil of secret writing . Even this secret writing, or cryptography, was not originated by them. It was practised in antiquity . The Celts had one made of small sticks ; the Egyptians had their hieroglyphics, a the Greeks their scytalus (for secret correspondence) . Cryptography was revealed 1 Let us mention the excellent translation of the curious Archidoxus Magieus, in seven volumes, of Paracelsus, by Maurice Pelletier who has supplied an interesting introduction containing the key of contemporary occult science . It shows how the science of the ancient Magi agrees with the latest data from our laboratories (Durville-publisher) . ' It would be a mistake to think that the hieroglyphics were the current writing of the Egyptians . They were only their sacred writing. They had another, called hieratic, which was used by the priests, and another called demotic, used by the people.

PRELIMINARY 307 to us by two works of Abbe Tritheme (his Polygraphy and his Stenography) and others published since dealing with this question .

• Synt • hetic• Encyc • lopae • dia of Occult Sciences, Bose de Veze in his• Little which is not very well arranged and very far from complete, writes that the ancient occult nomenclature divided Magic into four sections 1 . Natural Magic, being the possibility of performing certain miraculous deeds by a deeper knowledge of the phenomena of Nature . This was defined by Father Kircher as the Knowledge of the Sympathy and the Antipathy of things . It was the Magic of Hermes Trismegistes and of Zoroaster ; it was the High Kabbala . 2. Mathematical Magic, of the thorough knowledge of the laws of Mechanics. It was the knowledge of Albert the Great, of Boetius, etc. 3 . Poisonous Magic, thus called by Agrippa, because it deals with philters, with mysterious potions, with metamorphoses, etc . It was the Magic of Medea, of Circe . 4 . Ceremonial Magic, the most powerful, the most terrible, whether Black Magic or Theurgy, which supplied the means of communicating with the spirits. Another classification is given by J . E . Bourgeat, that is to say, for all Magic Sciences two kinds of teaching-the exoteric method, taught in public, and the esoteric method, reserved to the initiates . Exoterism comprised the legends, the pictures, the symbols, the remains of which are the Bible, the Arabian Tales, the Fairy Tales, the Pentacles and other representative designs . Esoterism, oral teaching transmitted from generation to generation was the share of the very intelligent only who proved their courage and their strength, and were worthy to know the keys of the exoteric language . Mr. Bourgeat gives two apt illustrations in support of his theor . Let us take with him the episode of the Temptation in the Earthy Paradise . We read it in the Bible ; it is known to all children who learn their Biblical History :-Adam, Eve, the seducing Serpent, dialogue between Eve and the Demon-Reptile, the sin, innocence lost, the departure before the flaming sword of the Cherubim guarding the road which leads to the Tree of Life . . . . That is the Exoteric Tale. But now Esoterism intervenes and says :-Adam is none other than the representation of the active human element, intellect ; Eve personifies the passive, love . Now the active succumbs to the sense attraction of the passive, thus abdicating his intellect . Man then evolves towards animalism (God in fact covers Adam with the skin of beasts before driving him out) . He must leave Eden, that is to say the Circle of Life, and he shall not re-enter it until he has vanquished

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 308 . the Cherub (the soul of the Earth, the secret science, represented by the Cherubim) whose flaming sword sends out flashes of truth which blind the ordinary man instead of enlightening him . Another instance : the Egyptian Sphinx, for the non-initiated, was a fabulous animal, with a human head, a woman's breast, the loins of a bull, the claws of a lion, the wings of an eagle . i To the initiated this human head represented intelligence and knowledge ; the claws daring and action ; the loins will-power, perseverance and labour ; the folded wings silence . Hence the quaternary of the Magi :-Know, dare, will, keep silent . The initiate also finds in the Sphinx the four elements, fire (the lion's claws), water (the woman's breasts), earth (the loins of the bull), air (the wings of the eagle) . And thus the Sphinx represents the light of the stars and its properties . On the other hand Pierre Piobb in his Formulary of High Magic says :-Magic after all, according to Karl du Prel, is nothing but unknown Natural Science . Formerly the three great sciences of Astrology, Alchemy and Magic proper were confounded in the same expression . To-day they are carefully divided :Astrology celestial deals with the bodies as regards their nature and their movements . It is the science of words . Alchemy deals with matter as regards its essence and its evolution . It is hyperchemistry . THE EGYPTIAN SPHINX Magic keeps as its own province the fluids which are a manifestation of the fourth state of matter . It begins where physics end, it is hyperphysics . Y

But even from the point of view of Magic, P . Piobb distinguishes between on the one hand superstition, charlatanism, what Eliphas Levi calls " the sign which survives the thought, the dead corpse of a religious practice " and which is but a deformed practice, a caricature of the supreme Science, and on the other hand the latter, which is worthy of esteem and study, and which survives in the utilisation of the three fluids, magnetic, astral and essential, in its four forms :' Compare the symbols of the four Evangelists, the angel, the bull, the lion, the eagle .

PRELIMINARY (1) Man acting oh himself or (2) on the outside world . (3) The fluid acting in the star or (4) outside the star .

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The first two forms constitute microcosmic magic . The latter two constitute macrocosmic magic . Each form acts in two ways, the personal and the ceremonial . The personal is carried on without the assistance of an outside ritual. The ceremonial is carried on with the assistance of an outside ritual . It is in short the one used by religions. Ceremonial Magic, says F . A. Barlet, is an operation by means of which man seeks to coerce by the very action of natural forces the invisible powers of various orders to act in accordance with his demands . Hence pentacles, special condensers, conditions of time and space to observe . This resembles industrial science, where human power is as nothing compared with steam, electricity, explosives, etc ., but where it becomes formidable when it is able to use these powers . As to personal magic, it also is very efficacious when it succeeds in utilising those two forces which are so simple for the layman, Love and the Word, but whose power is multiplied a hundredfold for the initiate. How much could not be said as to the real creative force of Love and the Word ! A phrase occurs to us at the moment found in an interview which V . Mandelstamm had with the healer Jean Btzant (see appendix) :-" The Cause cannot help loving the Effect ." How should the creator of a thing not love this thing, issued from himself ? It is natural ; it is inevitable . Love draws . Love resolves . Love conquers . As to the Word, it also is a marvellous lever, it is the powerful, headstrong, victorious expression of Thought . The Word, says Dr . Baradue,'goes so far as to alter the visceral and psychic vitality of the subject, whom according to its will it makes ill or of good health . Paul Jagot, finally, starting scientifically from hyper-psychic phenomena and the constitution of Man according to Occultism (see below) deduces two classes of modern Magic-the personal or psychic Magic, and the traditional Magic, in which latter he includes Black Magic. By the former he understands the possibility of using Man's own reactionary power for the creation of astral movements which shall serve as agents in the realisation of his will. By the latter, the addition of new elements and the attempt at influencing the cosmic currents with the view of obtaining by their properly directed action effects in relation with their nature . This influence is effected-and here

310 THE OCCULT SCIENCES we fall back on the traditional data collected and classified by P . Piobb -at the time indicated by Occult Science, when the modality of forces and the entities which govern them offer a maximum of power, and by means of substances and writings which, by the operation of the law of correspondences, are appropriate condensers . It is not easy to bring these various ideas into relation . To succeed in doing so we shall use three chapter headings :-Low Magic, Alchemy, High Magic. By Low Magic we understand, without giving the least derogatory meaning to this description, the whole of magic practices ancient and modern . Alchemy will keep its well known meaning and realm of hyperchemistry . High' Magic will be for us the occult interpretation of the Cosmos and Humanity-in fact Hermetic Philosophy . Through Low magic we shall, by means of hyperpsychics, arrive at Spiritualism . Through High Magic we shall, by means of hyperphysics, arrive at Theosophy .

CHAPTER II Low MAGIC I Witchcraft

TEN years ago we should have begun this chapter by saying that Witchcraft was the collection of the practices of Low Magic long worn out and which were like the slime at the bottom of the Lake of Occult Sciences, at the present day decanted by the wisdom of the elect. But after reading this or that formulary or ritual of Eliphas Levi, of Papus or of Pierre Piobb, or some volume of Jagot, all of which deal quite seriously of these extraordinary matters, after learning that phenomena like those of psychometry or clairvoyance by mirrors are scientifically obtained, and that some queer act of bewitching does not belong to the realm of chimeras, we are compelled to stop on the threshold of the mysterious Temple on the other side of which we merely imagined a collection of illusions or cheatings, and we open the door only with caution to see and try to understand . Very imprudent would be the man, who, without prejudice, and anxious to make no errors, would dive for information into some History of Occult Sciences like that of the Count de Resi, or even the greater number of the contemporary books which claim that they are free " from the superstition of former times ." Let us, objectively and without comment for the moment, confine ourselves to remarking that witchcraft goes back to the very oldest times, and is merged with Magic, which accounts for the name of magicians given indiscriminately to sorcerers and to magi. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Germans, the Scandinavians practised Witchcraft, but it must be noted that a time came when they distinguished between Magi and Sorcerers, and punished the latter as criminals . The same thing happened in the Middle Ages when they were confounded with Heretics . The fight of Justice against them relaxed in the 15th century, when an era of free discussion seemed to dawn. But Papal Bulls 1 soon reinforced the horrors 1 Innocent VIII (1484), Alexander VI, Leo X, John XIII . The rising Protestantism added

to the fury of the Church, which engulfed Protestants and Witches in one debauch of cruel punishments.

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312 THE OCCULT SCIENCES of the Inquisition . The fires of persecution multiplied, again exciting the people . Under Charles IX there were more than 30,000 witches in France. Let us now mention the " crimes " of the witches, catalogued by Bodin under fifteen main heads . And first let us mention the Sabbath, which in reality was the ceremony of initiation, and the origin of which seems to go back to the earliest days of Christianity, when the Celts, in protest against the new religion, secretly preserved the worship of the god Pan and celebrated it according to a ritual which was modified from time to time and eventually came to follow the rites of the adepts of Satanism.' The Great Sabbath united once in three months all the sorcerers and witches of a State . The Little Sabbath called together once a week the initiates of a town or small region . It took place in a lonely spot, a wood, ruins, the side of a lake, cross roads (even if a cross was erected there), the foot of a gallows, and began towards midnight . The initiates arrived riding on broomsticks, and very soon the Devil in person (was it trickery, hallucination or evocation ?) was seated on a throne, having at his side the Queen-Mother, or Queen of Witches . Sometimes a Goat took the place of the Devil. And before the AllLowest, either in the flesh or by deputy, the new recruits were brought . And now the neophyte prostrates himself, renounces God, the Virgin, the Catholic Faith, delivers himself body and soul to Lucifer, and takes the oath of allegiance to him . Then he kisses his left hand, his mouth, his heart and his genitals . The Black Master places the stigma diaboli on his left shoulder . After this the assistants strip him and rub him with a foetid ointment . 2 Thereupon homage is rendered to Lucifer by kissing his base, and work begins . Powders, drinks, magic ointments are prepared, using mainly among plants ivy and hemlock, valerian and asphodel, and also extraordinary ingredients such as snakes' teeth, toad's skin, the entrails of hanged men, the brain of a newborn babe, the excrement of the owl, the gall of the goat, in short everything that may seem strange, repugnant, horrible . Spells are uttered, bewitchments made, curses pronounced . Then the festival begins . Scenes of extravagant eroticism take place, wild dances are performed in a fury of exaltation which turns all heads and ends in a kind of general epilepsy and in monstrous connections . But fatigue and exhaustion in the end overcome the victims, they collapse until, when the sound of infernal music 1 Micbelet thinks that possibly Witchcraft was in some way a revolt of the people against the double power of the Church and the State . ' It may also be that having first been rubbed with this ointment, the adepts went to the Sabbath in a dream, or with their astral body (see Appendix) .

LOW MAGIC 313' restores their vigour, the celebrated Round of the Sabbath begins, which ends at cock-crow in a general flight . About the year 1300 a supplemental ritual began to be used, the Black Mass . It started with the general confession, in which of course every one boasted of the most abominable crimes . Satan or his deputy then read a blasphemous parody of the ordinary Mass, preached a sermon inciting to evil, ridiculed in gestures frequently indecent the consecration, gave in communion to his disciples no one knows what fantastic meats and drinks (even the remains of deceased sorcerers), and then gave free course to the above mentioned convulsions . The frequently sadistic imagination of the judges was never at a loss in order to obtain confessions from those accused of witchcraft and subsequently executing them . It was by the cleansing (1) fire that they were chastised after trials abounding in judicial infamies as to which we shall keep silence . These trials were especially numerous in the 16th century which saw the condemnation amongst others of Verdun and Burgot who confessed having turned themselves into wolves and devoured children, the famous sorcerer Trois-Echelles who claimed to have 8,000 accomplices, Gilles Garner of Lyons, accused of lycanthropy and anthropophagy, 400 Huguenots at one time who were charged with magic as a convenient means of punishing their heresy, La Mole and Coconas who, it was said, tried to bewitch Henri III, and a considerable number of other " apostates, idolaters, sodomites, homicides, enchanters and worshippers of the Devil ." " The examination in these strange trials," writes Florian Parmentier, " presented inexplicable anomalies . Nothing could shake the conviction of the judges, neither the conflicting depositions of the witnesses nor the absurd tales of the accused . Further not one minute of judgment specifies the actual offence ." We are entitled to conclude on the one hand that the abominations of the sorcerers and witches have been enormously exaggerated, and on the other hand that in the case of most of them there existed, in the words of Dr . Regnard, " an epidemic disease of the mind " which brought on all the above mentioned exaltations, some of which may have degenerated into the fiercest eroticism as well as into actual murders. In the opinion of Lombroso (Hypnotism and Spiritism), the primitives, the ignorant country people worshipped individuals (sorcerers, magicians, prophets) who were true mediums, believed to be capable (and sometimes actually capable) of breaking the laws of nature by seeing at a distance, prophesying, levitating, communicating with angels, devils, and especially with the dead .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES In Sicily the people believe that men possessed have the gift of tongues, that witches transform themselves into cats, into bats, make women barren, cast spells, etc ., that there are good and bad Ladies of the Night . In Benevento Blasio has seen as many as one per cent. of the population hysterical, alcoholic, epileptic, and speaking a jargon of their own. In Portugal witches grew rich from predictions and philters . According to Maurerie, they had their own quarter in Lisbon, and the police tried in vain to take proceedings . In France Brittany and the Vosges were especially infested by magicians who told the future and cast spells . Looked at closely, the majority of these persons only produced more or less efficiently most of the hyperpsychic phenomena which to-day are well known (see Third Part) . The Arabs have their aissaouas, their dervishes expert in clairvoyance by means of the magic mirror, the crystal or water, their convulsed medidubs . The Patagonians have their prophet-physicians, who, as in Brazil, are almost always epileptics . The Kaffirs have isangonas or diviners who have to go through an apprenticeship . The sorcerers of Madagascar stand in the front rank . There is no end to the list of the various sorcerers of the successive centuries and the various latitudes . But special mention is due to the Fakirs of India of whom a former Consul in Benares, Jacolliot, was one of the first to relate the marvellous feats . Thus the Fakir Covindaswamy, to name but one, was able, by leaning on the knob of a stick, to rise in the air with legs crossed in Eastern fashion and to remain in this position for twenty minutes, to make it impossible for any one to lift a small table which he had magnetised by laying his hands on it, to play a musical instrument from a considerable distance, to make a stick write, without his touching it, on the sand a word thought by another person, to make a papaw seed germinate and grow to eight inches by the laying on of hands, to let himself be put into a coffin and buried in the ground for ten months without dying, to produce above a chafing dish hands which move and pick flowers . All these phenomena belong clearly to mediumship or hyperpsychics (see Third Part) . In his book on Witchcraft Mr . Florian Parmentier tries to take its mechanism to pieces, and says some very apt things about it, the chief of which is as follows :" The origin of the demoniac part of Witchcraft," he thinks, " comes in truth from the Catholic dogma relating to the existence of the Devil . Witchcraft has taken hold of this thought (which perhaps is but a

LOW MAGIC 315 symbol) and has made it into a reality which, in its turn deformed by the popular imagination, has become a new dogma, viz ., the belief in a Devil having well settled shape and attributes (horns, cloven foot, tail, smell of sulphur, etc .), able to appear and disappear, full of an evil power and in short only desiring to do mischief . With whose assistance shall he do mischief ? With whose but that of the sorcerers ? " On the other hand, the people, unable to explain the ills under which it laboured, found it only natural to attribute them to the Devil and to his agents . At once, then, sudden deaths, epilepsies and any illness out of the ordinary, accidents, reverses of fortunes, murrains, calamities of all kinds were attributed to sorcerers . Better still, or rather worse still, the fact of being independent, of having opinions contrary to those of the rest, knowing the properties of herbs and simples, being able to reduce a sprain, all this meant to be more or less in touch with the Devil . During a thousand years, says Michelet, the witch was the sole physician of the People. The wealthy had ercourse to certain rare men who were thought to be able to heal without recourse to witchcraft . But the vulgum pecus always applied to the saga, vague wise woman, or rather woman who was more or less a witch ; out of respect she was called Good Lady ; at bottom she inspired fear ; further this healer did not hesitate to bring about abortions or poisonings which Medicine, then rudimentary, was unable to denounce (for autopsy was unknown) . " Besides," says Mr. Florian Parmentier very aptly, " since it was a religious dogma to believe in the Devil, why should it not be allowed to accuse him of everything which seemed supernatural ? Thus we may explain the credulity of superior minds at the same time good Catholics, such as Pica della Mirandola, Jean Fernel or Ambrose Park ." Finally his conclusion is well worth remembering :-" Luminosity, electro-magnetic waves, forces in motion and actions at the beginning of their performance, all these in the universe in fact repulse and attract each other and give rise to unsuspected reactions . Hypnotism, mental automatism, thought transference, opaque vision, high frequency electricity with its millions of oscillations per second, X rays and the photography of the Invisible, the telegraphing of pictures, tele-autography and tele-mechanics, the N ray and the emanations of radium, all these are so many forces which to-day are disciplined, phenomena which we know to be produced by radiation and to act at a distance on appropriate receivers . Now the human brain and the human nervous system are so far as we know the most perfected receiving apparatus for all magnetic currents, for all the vibrations of the psychic atmosphere . And this leads us to think in the last resort that mani-

316 THE OCCULT SCIENCES festations attributed to occult causes have in truth merely changed their name, and that the witchcraft of the devil has been followed in our own time, the great scientific witchcraft which, like the other, has its initiations, its phenomena, its mysteries, its conquests of the infinite, and also its superstitions, its trickeries and its errors ."

• kes a mistake, and Where, however, Mr . Florian• Parmentier ma where he goes farther than he needs for his exposition, is in saying that there is no call, in his opinion, to be surprised at the credulity of yesterday when we consider the credulity of to-day . Why, he asks in substance, in the 16th century should not people believe in the devil when in the 20th century they still believe in the follies of Spiritualism 1 On the face of it he is right . As an occultist he exaggerates . There is no need to put in issue the disturbing although still unexplained phenomena of mediumship ; he thinks these are natural if they exist, and we agree with him on this point, for these phenomena do in truth come within the scope of natural events, since they are true and not chimerical . As to Spiritualism, he is perhaps somewhat hasty in condemning it. Where he frankly is right is in seeking out and showing up the amount of imposture and charlatanism which exist in witchcraft . With him we are convinced that there were at the time thousands of tricks, that the judges proceeded through stupidity, through sadism and even through self-interest (they profited to some extent from the confiscation of the property of the condemned), that Witchcraft supported revolts against the Government, that crooks of all kinds used it for their own- benefit (and also cunning lovers), that eroticism profited by it at a time when the law was severe with free love, that some so-called magic formulae were at bottom mere aphrodisiacs, that hysteria played a considerable part in those troublous times when, in default of morphia or cocaine, the properties of opium, of stramonium, of belladonna, of datura, of hemp were brought into use, that the drugs prepared in accordance with magical formulae must of necessity produce a thousand hallucinations, somnambulism, even the mad imaginings which caused sorcerers and witches to confess " crimes " which they had never committed except in dream, that hypnotism played its part in the matter (impressionability being greater than to-day and the number of neurotics and weaklings more considerable), that the spells cast might well be nothing but suggestion, that the cases of demoniac possession might be merely auto-suggestion (the same remark applying to exorcism), that sorcerers might be able, like some moderns, to heal or relieve through magnetism and to hypnotise themselves like the Fakirs, believe themselves, like the mediums, to be visited by spirits, and to practise witchcraft in the

LOW MAGIC 317 manner of Mr. de Rochas, by explaining this true phenomenon by the exteriorisation of sensitiveness . Yes, we believe all that, and it considerably lessens the mysteries of Low Magic and makes them into a frequently caricaturing introduction to the great modern psychic experiments . II The Storehouse and the Prescriptions of Low Magic After this preamble it will be surmised that we shall not of cupy ourselves for long with the practices of Witchcraft . We shall give a list of them, together with the strange prescriptions and the grotesque storehouse of Low Magic, intentionally confusing the ancient and the mediaeval tradition, and confining ourselves to extracting from curious books and spell-books of all kinds, which had an amazing circulation and which are still being republished and modernised, those things which appeared to us the least extravagant and also the most typical, all this, of course, merely as historical and informative . But those who in spite of everything think that these formulae may possibly have retained some efficacy need not hesitate to try them . It will not be difficult to find in the following information on any desired subject concerning these survivals from ancient times and popular beliefs, and we also mention the names and give some details of the most famous of the books of Ancient Magic . After that we shall go on to the modernisation of traditional Magic . Abraxas This first word correctly describes the storehouse of the sorcerers, the main items of which were natural talismans, magic formulae, rings, wands, weapons, magic rings and mirrors, the flying pistol, baby's skins, virgin parchment, virgin wax and soil, etc . The chief natural Talismans were :The mandragora, inspiration of love . The topaz, driver off of black thoughts . The ruby, quieter of excited senses . The hyena skin, which makes invulnerable . Powdered toad, which produces love . The bezoar, universal panacea .

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Amulets and Talismans These are various articles, consecrated or not, which protect against illness, misfortune and accident . They also bring luck and success . But, says E . Bose, they are of value only if the wearer has faith in them . And Eliphas Levi says, " The talismans in this resemble the Catholic host, which is salvation for the just and damnation for the sinner, and which thus, according to the state of him who receives them, means God or the Devil ." The Jews have among their talismans a roll of parchment called mezuroth . They place it in the lintel of the doors of their houses, or carry it on them in a small case so as to comply with the saying in Deuteronomy, " You shall never forget the law of God and shall engrave it on the lintels of your doors ." The talismans sold by the pedlars of Occultism, or which are advertised, are swindles, says Schwaeble in his Book of Luck, seeing that, to be efficacious, the talisman must be made by the person it concerns . There are some which are worn on the person because they remedy one's defects or strengthen one's qualities, and others are used on special occasions only . Some writers say that for the former a metal disc must be cut corresponding to the planet which rules one's life, and the signs of such planet engraved on the disc ; others say that two discs must be used, one for the planet ruling one's life, the other for the planet strengthening or modifying it . The following are also mentioned as bringing luck :A horn made of coral or gold or stone . A piece of the cord of a hanged man . One of the sacred stones in astrological relation with the wearer (see below) . A little bag containing the eye of a woodpecker, the eye of a weasel, a crystal ring, a penny with a hole in it, a fragment of an aerolith (stone fallen from the sky) and dust from a menhir . Also a four-leaved clover, but picked by the wearer, either at midnight on a Friday during the first three days of the Moon, or in bright sunshine between noon and three o'clock either in a lonely spot or in a graveyard ; if it has not been picked by you yourself, it should be given you by a friend and handed to you by the stalk . Wear it round the neck in a locket . Let us look at the Jewish Kabbala of Paul Vulliaud . Amulets, he says, are of great interest in the study of religions, of folklore, of practical Kabbala . Their use is universal, whether they are called Hemelets (in Persia), Amuleta (in Rome), Teraphim (in Mesopotamia), Phylacteries (in Greece), Totapoth (in Egypt), or Tebhulim (in Chaldea),

319 LOW MAGIC Talismanic art is the art of making these articles from which we expect a protection, and the name of which means " that which is attached ." The first human ornaments seem to have been amulets (earrings, etc.) Breast jewelry, rings on the hand were charms . Precious stones were always looked upon as endowed with magic virtues . Soon the word amulet came to mean a small bag hung round the neck and containing roots, seeds and other articles which had an efficacious occult power, or a metal disc engraved with Kabbalistic signs . The Jews had a whole series of forbidden and permitted amulets . A whole book might be written on their talismanic art, also on that We shall forbear, merely saying that Christianity of other nations. had and has its amulets (scapularies, medals, holy relics, etc .), the same as other religions .' In conclusion let us draw attention to the theory and the instances of talismans given by Papus . 2 The language of the Invisible World is the Picture, says the great modern magician, for the picture is understood by every one . Hence a symbolic language seen by clairvoyants, consecrated by Tradition and used in the making of talismans . Talismans influence the plane which is in relation with the graphic characters of which they are made and with the ceremonies which have been used to fix their astral attraction . The hieroglyphic signs of the talismans must be inscribed on virgin parchment on which no other image has yet been set, even in thought (what we have said above as to psychometry and as to objects retaining the impression of the persons and the things with which they have been in touch, will be remembered) . Virgin parchment is made of "the skin of still-born animals . Magic Rings These are amulets with varying properties according to their conWith their aid the magicians, it seems, worked miracles . secration.

3 The talismans used in magic are the visible signs of the Principles, the channels of energy, corresponding to piers ; they are the piers, the accumulators of the astral ; the energy is captured, imprisoned in them, directed by means of the operations of the Magician, through his incantations, the power of the strength of the Magician and the power borrowed by him from Nature, this energy being communicated to the things which are the conductors of the nervous and magneto-ethero-electric fluid. The religious medals of all cults, the rosaries, the fetishes, the luck bringers, especially if in metal, the scapularies, are magic talismans . But the devout do not know the reason of their influence, they attribute it to the gods instead of referring it to the universal Energy, specialised by religious or purely magic rites (as the case may be), which rites still further increase the power of the talisman or the ceremony by reason of the Tradition (an occult chain in Space and Time) and the solidarity of the spirits all tending in the same direction and towards the same end. (Jollivet-Castelot) . 2 In the Book of Luck .

320 THE OCCULT SCIENCES According to Ch. V. Langlois, there were two well defined kinds of magic rings :1 . Those which gave their wearers supernatural powers . 2. Those which bound their wearers to some bondage . One of the most famous rings of Antiquity was that called Solomon's ring in the stone of which the great King saw everything he wanted to know (this was no doubt a case of clairvoyance of which phenomenon we have already spoken). The best known kinds of these rings were the following :The stellar rings which were worn, not on the finger, but round the neck like a scapulary . The travellers' rings which enabled them to cover long distances without fatigue (there is no doubt that, through auto-suggestion, they simply doubled the energy of the traveller) . The rings of invisibility, like that of Gyges, King of Lydia, which made their wearer invisible to the eye . It had to be made of solid mercury and ornamented with a stone which is only found in the nest of the hoopoe . It may be pointed out that wedding rings are a remnant of the magic rings . They are worn on the ring finger, because in chiromancy that finger corresponds to the heart . The husband will be master in the home, if, on placing it on his wife's finger, he is careful to push it right down. Magic Weapons . Everyone knows the marvels worked by the celebrated Durandal, the sword of Roland, who used to cleave a rock with it . It obviously was enchanted . In witchcraft a magic or enchanted sword is an ordinary sword consecrated. The magic sword is used either to trace the magic circle, or in defence against the evil spirits of Invisibility . A magic knife was a knife with a white handle, dipped in the blood of a male goose on the day and at the hour of Mercury in an increasing moon . Three ordinary Masses were read over this sword and certain mysterious signs were written on it in exorcised sulphuret of mercury . Magical and Divining Rods The practice of Rhabdomancy (divination by a rod) was one of the most highly honoured in Magic . It survives in the very remarkable art of the dowsers .

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According to Father Lebrun, a divining rod is made half of alderwood, half of other wood . It is balanced on a pivot fixed in the earth in a spot where water may be expected to be . He says that before the sun has dispersed the morning dew, the alder, more porous than other wood, absorbs the aqueous emanations of the soil (sign of water) and dips down if there is a sheet of water or a spring . Nothing remains but to dig . The celebrated rod with which Moses smote the rock to make water gush forth was undoubtedly a rod of this kind which he knew how to use. Another kind of dowser's rod is simply a fork of walnut wood about 18 inches long, one year old and as thick as a finger . The rod is grasped by its two ends, the point of the fork forward, and the dowser goes slowly over the region where he expects to find water below ground . At the exact spot where there is water, the point of the rod dips towards the ground . The rhabdomancer Royer used for this fork alder, oak or pear wood indiscriminately, balanced it on the back of his hands, and, walking slowly, pointed out where there was water at the moment when the rod began to turn by itself . As will be seen, Rhabdomancy has nothing magical, and belongs to pure physics . But the ignorant are surprised by the phenomenon, and from surprise to a belief in witchcraft is but a step . The true divining rod was used for three different discoverieswater, hidden metal, the track of man . This last named property is said to have been brought to light following on a very curious happening in Lyons which we shall briefly relate, for it was much discussed at the time, and has to some extent become classic in argument . On the 5th July, 1692, in Lyons, a family of wine merchants were killed in their cellar with a bill-hook, and the money in the shop was stolen. In order to trace the murderers, a peasant of the Dauphine, Jacques Aymar, was called in, as he was said to be able to follow the track of evildoers by means of a magic rod . The good man asked to be taken to the cellar, and although he had not been told anything, his rod began to turn in the exact two spots where the man and the woman had been killed . He himself became highly feverish ; he went back to the shop, and from there passed into the street, still led by his rod. He left the town, went along the right of the river, into the house of a gardener, maintained that the murderers must have sat down at his table to drink a bottle, which fact was confirmed by two children who were questioned and whom the rod had pointed out as knowing something of the drama . On the other hand, the authorities having buried in some land belonging to Mr . de Mongirol the bill-hook with which the crime had been committed, together with

322 THE OCCULT SCIENCES some others, Aymar found the former . Then he was accompanied by a Clerk of the Court and some archers . He went back to the Rhone and found that the culprits had taken a boat . Aymar followed them on the water as on the land, landed everywhere where they had landed, found the beds where they had slept, the tables where they had eaten . The magician in this way went as far as Beaucaire, knew that they had separated there, and followed the track of the accomplice who most strongly affected the rod . He went as far as a prison, and among a dozen prisoners, pointed to a hunchback who had been locked up an hour before for some petty theft . On being questioned, the man confessed after some resistance that he had been a witness of the crime committed by two others . Aymar starts off again, goes as far as Toulon and does not stop till he reaches the sea, where he says that the murderers have taken a boat to escape abroad . That is the story . A treatise on the Divining Rod in two volumes 1 gives the following explanation :The Rod, also called Caduceus, divining Rod, Rod of Aaron, Staff of Jacob, etc ., was known in all times, and many writers mention it . Its action is revealed by the " philosophy of corpuscles," the latter being volatile agents, subtle forms of matter which are capable of detaching themselves from bodies ; it is they which, escaping from the subterranean water, from a hidden treasure, or from a man whose track is followed, influence the divining rod, just as would happen in the case of the emanations of a scented object revealing its passage to those who did not see it ; the author likewise quotes the smell of dogs who follow or find their master, and he sees an analogy with the action of the rod, the latter being equally sensitive " to the corpuscles ." But he admits that this sensitiveness belongs to the man who communicates it to his tool which without him, would remain inactive . And here he brings in the idea of magnetism . As to the discovery of treasures, according to the author it must be assumed that the rod correctly handled is sensitive to metallic emanations, and he gives a list of mines found by this means, notably in the Pyrenees, the Languedoc, Auvergne, etc . He also describes the " face of the sky " under which the rod must be cut so as to find the mines in accordance with the metal which they contain . It is very curious to discover from this little book the progress of criticism . Formerly the working of the rod was looked upon as demoniac . Here occult physics are brought in and the theory of corpuscles is discussed . Thus we attain to truth and the purely scientific explanations given for instance to the divining rod of the dowser, and which will some day in like manner be given of the other phenomena of rhabdomancy. 1 Occult Physic8, published by Moetiens at the Hague in 1772 .

LOW MAGIC 323 Enchiridion The Enchiridion is a collection of magical prescriptions and prayers discovered (or invented) by Pope Leo III and given by him to Charles the Great in 800 to protect him against all evils . We extract from it the following :Against thieves :-Throw into water the names of the suspected thieves, each written on a piece of paper, and say :-" AragoniParandamo-Eptalicon-Lamboured ." At these words one or more of the papers will float ; they reveal the names of the guilty. Against epilepsy :-Blow into the right ear and repeat three times " Fora consumatio est ramus-malin-rite-confedo-saluero ." At these words the patient will give a convulsive start . Drive three nails into the ground at the spot where he fell, and add :-" Valeam de zazoeo attila alleluia ." Against burns :-Place currant jelly on the wound and say three times :-" Escenareth. Fire of God . Lose thy heat-Escenareth 1 " Against toothache :-Say " Struggole faiusque lecutate, to decutinem dolorum persona ." There is a whole book full of these . The above extract will suffice . It will be seen that the Enchiridion is based almost entirely on the power of the word . Spells Although we place spells among the Low Magic, later on, in the third part of this book, the scientific explanation of this noted magical practice will be found . The spell consisted of making in wax a small statue or a heart which was given the name of the enemy to be bewitched . (Sometimes, in order to increase the likeness, this effigy was clothed in the same manner as the hated object, and in order to accentuate the curse it was tried to get a tooth, or hairs, or nail parings of this person, and they were added to the dressing .) After this, concentrating on this image with curses, it was torn with pins, pinched, skinned, crushed . And the enemy endured the same sufferings, even death . We said that below an explanation of bewitching will be found by reason of the exteriorisation of sensitiveness . But some occultists" say that the experiments of Mr . de Rochas in this connection necessitate the magnetisation of the subject who in fact exteriorises his sensitiveness whilst asleep ; but the casters of spells of old never put to sleep those whom they bewitched . And some years ago, when Stanislas de Guaita and the Abbe Boulan bewitched each other-and both ' See in this connection R. Schwaeble, The Book of Luck .

324 THE OCCULT SCIENCES died of it-they did not put each other to sleep . 1 In the same way (if it is true) the village sorcerers did not put to sleep the cattle and humans on whom they cast their spells and who suffered from them . 2 It has therefore seemed necessary to find another explanation, an occult one, which is as follows :-There are, if not microbes of passion (good or evil) at any rate elementals (see Third Part) who circulate in the Invisible . It is to them that the caster of spells appeals with the whole strength of his faith to induce them to carry to the enemy the poison of illness and of death . In order to guard against such a curse it is therefore necessary to know a clairvoyant who will warn you of the danger, thanks to which you will, with your own will-power, drive back the accursed messenger who, unable to make use of his " load of evil," throws it back on the sender (this is called the shock of the rebound) . At bottom there is in the theory of spells an idea similar to that known to Catholic Faith as the " Communion of Saints ." We know that Christ " took on Himself the sins of the world " when He died on the cross to save Humanity . We know that various Saints prayed God to put on them the ills of other human beings . An instance is St. Lydwine . 3 We know that people bring to church a limb in wax similar to their ailing limb and ask for it to be healed . We know that Monks pray in the Choir in the hope that their prayers will atone for sins. What is the meaning of all this if not a belief in the possibility of a transmission of evils ? Did not Christ heal the possessed by sending the spirits who troubled them into swine? Side by side with criminal or hate spells, there are love spells. These are of two kinds-those which stop love and those which evoke it . The former are called the " tying of the knot " (see below under " Charms .") We shall deal here with the second alone . We can find as many formulae for love philtres as we want, either in the old books of spells, or (in the shape of aphrodisiac pills) on the fourth page of the newspapers 1 According to Schwaeble, it is at bottom sufficient to rub yourself with verbena. The same writer gives another formula, a mixture consisting of 20 grammes of essence of clove, 10 grammes of essence of geranium and 200 grammes of alcohol at 90 degrees . Wash 1 This extraordinary adventure took place in January, 1893, and was much talked about at the time. Boulan was the first to die, at Lyons, and Gualta subsequently of the shock of the "rebound ." • See in the appendix the enquiry of the Petit Journal as to modern witches . • See the admirable book which J . K. Huysmans has written about her ; without being a true occultist, he was very well instructed on these various curious questions of mysticism and demonism .

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your hands and arms thoroughly so as to open the pores and then rub yourself with the mixture . It acts, he assures us, on the genetic sense . What is the meaning of the expression, a charming woman ? It is a woman who charms . Whence comes this definite charm of some women ? From their attractions no doubt, but also from some indefinable magical power . Some writers claim that it is because they are able by their will (but without any knowledge of the theory) to influence the good " elementals ." Let man do the same, let him exert his will . And by a kind of suggestion he will rouse love in her whom he loves . Although we are going to speak of spells again later, we have thought it interesting to quote here this extract from an article on the subject by Dr. D . Legue :The middle ages with their alternations of shadows and light were never able to fathom magnetism . Antiquity had seen its results without having tried to know their causes . The 18th century, with Mesmer's tub, bad not yet disentangled the scientific principle from the miraculous which surrounded it . The same facts which acted on the organism of our fathers are produced to-day. Not very long ago, Colonel Rochas, a Professor at the Polytechnic School, had gathered round him a few people to whom he intended to demonstrate in an almost tangible form the phenomenon of casting spells in the middle ages . For this purpose he had brought a wax doll, and in support of his theory he thought of one of the ladies in the audience, and said that the person indicated would at the same moment feel his touch of the doll . In fact he touched several times the heart and the arms of the figure, and Mrs . X. felt these touches in a manner proportionate to the will-power which the Professor put into his action. The experiment over, everybody got up, with the exception of Mrs . X. who was sitting at some distance : One of the spectators out of curiosity picked up the object which the experimenter had used, and turned it over in all directions . Mrs . X was then heard to say plaintively : " Have you not yet made me suffer enough ? " How is this singular phenomenon to be explained unless in the same manner as the stigmatisation which reproduces the wounds of the martyrs on the bodies of neurasthenics whose imagination was a prey to trouble caused by religious asceticism ? Scientists, physicians, physiologists have collected a great number of instances in order to show the pathologic effects produced by violent emotions . Let us go back to an example which has become historic . When persons in convulsions took, on the tomb of the Deacon Paris, the position of Christ on the Cross, it was often noticed that their hands and feet became red . The palms of their hands were burning, and certain marks like stigmata appeared

326

THE OCCULT SCIENCES on their bodies . Burdach, the well known physiologist, relates that one day a red spot was seen on the body of a man who had dreamt he had received a violent blow . In this case it is to-day recognised that the intensity of dreams can go so far as to produce the appearance of digestive troubles . Who has not read, in the Golden Legend, the story of the patient of Capriena ? Does she not share, with St . Francis of Assisi, Madeleine de Pazzi and so many others, the not very enviable honour of bearing on different parts of her body the stigmata of the Passion ? Now " these stigmata, according to Burdin, exude a colourless and burning liquid . It is certain, he adds, that if the bodies of all these bearers of the stigmata had been carefully examined, the same ulcerations and the same pustulas would have been found in them too ." Some of them bore piously on their limbs the mysterious traces of the wounds of Christ, their foreheads bled as if under the pressure of the Crown of Thorns . The action of the thought, of the influence of the mind on the body, or, as we should say to-day, auto-suggestion thus became manifest in a material manner . Well, the followers of occultism ask themselves with some disquietude, could not this volition of the soul act just as well at a distance on a given person ? Were there none in the middle ages, who did not wish that their enemy might suffer this or the other torment ? Hence the spells which were so frequent in the 13th, 15th and 16th centuries and even later, and which might well be included in the series of phenomena discussed above .

Conjuring Books These were manuscript books for the use of magicians and sorcerers . They were also called A .B.C .s of the Devil . Only three have been printed, and they became famous :The Grimoire of Pope Honorius . The Grimorium Verum, translated from the Hebrew by Plaigniere . The Great Grimoire, followed by the Clavicle of Solomon . But the following are also looked upon as Conjuring Books :-

The Enchiridion, the Red Dragon, the Magical Venus, the Treasure of the Old Man of the Pyramids, the Magic Works of Agrippa, the Secrets of the Old Druid, the Black Hen, etc ., and especially the Great and the Little Albert . The last two names are given to the collection of magical formulae left by Albert the Great, the famous doctor (in the medieval sense of the word) who was born in Swabia in 1193 and died in Cologne in 1280 . Having joined the Order of Dominicans in 1222, he taught the sciences and the philosophy of his day in various towns, and particularly in Paris (1245 to 1248) with such success that in the end he had to speak in the open air, such was the size of his audiences,

LOW MAGIC 327 in a square which has preserved his name (Magister Albertus, which has been corrupted into Maubert) . In Rome, in 1255, Pope Alexander IV loaded him with honours, but he soon returned to his beloved studies which he only gave up when overcome by old age . He was the teacher of St . Thomas Aquinas, and his works consist of not less than 20 stout folios . His erudition was amazing. He made real discoveries in chemistry . But he shared with his times errors which astound us to-day, prodigious childishnesses . He believed in the most grotesque tenets, and it is as a magician that he became historical . He composed hundreds of fantastic receipts which, we repeat, are found in one of his works which has become a classic of its kind, The admirable Secrets of the Great Albert, and The Secrets of the Little Albert. Magic Herbs There are, in Low Magic, about fifteen herbs to which Albert the Great and other sorcerers, ascribe magic virtues, brief details of which we give below :The heliotrope which, picked in certain conditions, wrapped in a laurel leaf with a wolf's tooth and carried on the person keeps from slander . The nettle which, held in the hand with some yarrow, keeps off the fear of ghosts . The teasel which, dipped into mandragora juice, brings puppies to a bitch . The celandine which, carried on the person together with a mole's heart, makes invincible against enemies and lawsuits . The periwinkle which becomes an aphrodisiac if eaten powdered with earthworms in meat . The nept which, put into the nose of animals, makes them drop as if dead for a short time . The hound's-tongue which, hung round the neck of a dog, gives it a fatal giddiness . The henbane which, mixed with the blood of a young hare and carried on the person, collects round you all the hares of the neighbourhood . The lily which, if picked under the sign of Leo, mixed with the juice of laurel and placed under a dungheap, breeds worms which, powdered and placed in a person's clothes, prevent the latter sleeping . The mistletoe which, hung up to a tree by the wing of a swallow, collects all the cuckoos of the neighbourhood . The centaury which, thrown into the fire on a starry night, makes the stars appear dancing a kind of mad saraband .

328

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The sage which, allowed to rot under a dungheap, breeds worms which, thrown into the fire, make a noise like thunder . The verbena which likewise in rich soil breeds worms which, put into a dove-cot, collect pigeons there . The mint which, thrown raw with cypress juice into soup, makes the latter very pleasant to the person eating it . The snake-wood, the rose, etc., are also endowed with various marvellous properties . Side by side with these magical herbs we also have magical animals and stones ; each one lends itself to quaint formulae and fantastic claims which we shall not detail here, for the whole of this section of Magic has to-day fallen into disuse and is without interest . Let us, however, in passing mention the series of so-called planetary plants, which is as follows :Offodilius (Saturn) . Used against diseases of the kidneys and the legs, and in exorcism. Buttercup (the Sun) .-Against stomach troubles, and to calm frantic and melancholy persons . Chrinostate (the Moon) .-Against acidity and scrofula . Made into tea, it is good for digestion . Arnoglosse (Mars).-Against headache . Stomachic juice . Cures haemorrhoids . Cinquefoil (Mercury) .-Closes wounds, calms toothache . Henbane (Jupiter) .-Antidote for ulcers, for liver complaints . Makes cheerful and charming . Pistorion (Venus) .-This is verbena which cleanses the breath and brings love .

Magic Mirrors They enabled, it was said, to see the present, the past and the future . They are of great variety, and of great antiquity . St. Augustine (in De Civitate Dei, Ch. VII, 35) says that they were used by the witches of Thessaly who wrote their oracles on them in human blood . Varron claims that they are of Persian origin, the Magi having used them for a method of divination called Catoptromancy . Spartianus says that Didius Julianus used them to know the result of the battle which Tullius Crispinius fought with Septimus Severus, his rival for the Throne . The persons who, in Rome, read these mirrors were called Specularii . In the East these instruments were called Stellar Mirrors . Pica della Mirandola had faith in them, provided they were made under a favourable constellation, and that they should only be consulted when one felt comfortably warm, for the cold harms the lucidity of their oracle. Reinaud speaks of them in his Description of the Blacas

LOW MAGIC 329 Cabinet. He adds that the operators perfume them, fast for seven days before using them, and recite sacramental prayers at the moment of consulting them . The Chinese and the Hindus made theirs of metal, concave or convex . Muratori tells us of a Bishop of Verona who was put to death because under his pillow a magic mirror was found bearing on the reverse the word fiore which means flower, and proves collaboration with the devil, since, according to St . Cyprian, Satan sometimes appeared in the shape of a flower . A mirror of this kind was also found in the house of Calas de Rienzi . Catherine de Medicis had one . The shape of these mirrors was, as we have said, very varied . Some bore the name of their inventor (Cagliostro, Swedenborg, etc .) More recently they have been used to fix the eye of clairvoyants or mediums so as to put them into a state of hypnosis . Cahagnet, in his Magnetic Magic, quotes the principal mirrors as follows :-

The Theurgic Mirror-a bottle of clear water looked at by a child, and in which the Archangel Gabriel replies by pictures to his questions . The Mirror of the Sorcerers-any kind of mirror or pail of water. The country sorcerer, standing near the consultant, recites a spell and shows him the reflection of the picture wanted . The Mirror of Cagliostro-the bottle of clear water is on a iece of furniture, and before it a child, on whose head the operator paces one hand and tells him the questions to ask, to which replies are given in allegorical pictures . The Mirror of du Potet-a piece of cardboard having pasted on one side a sheet of tin and on the other a piece of black cloth . The operator magnetises it strongly and places it a foot away from the eye of the consultant who, having fixed his eyes on it, soon sees in it the desired object . The Swedenborgian Mirror-a paste of graphite mixed with olive oil is poured on an ordinary mirror and allowed to dry for a few days . The consultant, whose image must not be reflected (he stands at some distance for this reason) looks into it, whilst the operator stares magnetically at the back of his head, and vision takes place . The Magnetic Mirror-a round crystal globe filled with magnetised water at which the consultant looks carefully until the desired vision appears . The Narcotic Mirror-similar globe but a narcotic powder made of belladonna, henbane, mandragora, hemp, poppy, etc., is dissolved in the water . The Galvanic Mirror-it is made of two discs, one of copper and

330 THE OCCULT SCIENCES concave, the other of zinc and convex, both magnetised nine times in nine days . The centre of the concave is looked at . Cabalistic Mirrors-there are seven, being seven globes each representing one of the seven planets of Astrology, made of the corresponding metal and consulted on the appropriate astrological day. They are :The globe of the Sun, made of gold and consulted on Sundays as to superior beings and the great persons of the earth . The globe of Mercury, made of a glass globe filled with mercury and consulted on Wednesdays as to questions of money . The globe of Jupiter, made of tin and consulted on Thursdays as to the probability of success and as to the devotion of domestics . The globe of Mars, made of iron and consulted on Tuesdays as to quarrels, lawsuits, enmities . The globe of Venus, made of copper and consulted on Fridays as to questions of love. The globe of Saturn, made of lead and consulted on Saturdays as to secrets, lost articles, etc . The globe of the Moon, made of silver and consulted on Mondays as to dreams and plans . As regards Mirrors, the Third Part will give information as to everything relating to " crystal vision," a phenomenon of clairvoyance pure and simple, and there will be shown the psychic basis of these apparently fantastic magic objects where it is no longer necessary to evoke the spirits and where it is possible actually to obtain visions of the future . Divination by coffee grounds, as we have said, is nothing but a substitute for divination by magic mirrors. Mandragora This curious plant has a root which somewhat resembles a human face or a phallus. Some mystics saw in it the umbilical sign of our terrestrial origin . Eliphas Levi himself thought that man having been made of the dust of the earth, must needs have first been made in the shape of a root. By analogy he inferred that the first men belonged to the family of mandragoras, some of the latter having come to life under the sun . It is difficult for a naturalist to admit this hypothesis . However it may be, some alchemists believed in it . Paracelsus claimed that it was possible to succeed in everything with the aid of mandragora, and also by its means to give birth to a homunculus (little living man) . IL

i We deal here with Atropa mandragora, the apothecary's kind, also called female mandragora, hand of glory or magician's herb, with a foetid smell, and often a forked root .

LOW MAGIC 331 Hence also artificial mandragora was made and was used as a talisman .

Necromancy This was the art of raising the dead. The celebrated Christian, in his History of Magic which the astrologer Ely Star used so much, taught this art, of which much might be said if one takes into account the phenomena of spiritualism or even of mediumship (see Third Part) . There is certainly some connection between modern experiments and the old practices of witchcraft, for it is more than probable that more than one sorcerer was a medium . The celebrated Voisin, that remarkable witch, soothsayer and poisoner, burned alive in 1680, practised necromancy . And in the Black Magic of the doctors Jaf and Caufeynon we find the account of the evocation of the ghost of Turenne carried out by her in the Church of Saint Denis at the request of Abbe d'Auvergne, Prince and Cardinal de Bouillon, the heir of the Marshal who believed that the latter had hidden a treasure . The description of an evocation ceremony is found in the same book, and in many others to which we refer the reader, begging him however to beware of this kind of witchcraft which could only end in turning his brain . It will be better to confine himself to the experiments of mediumistic apparitions which he will find farther on . Many have erroneously included in the same word both Goetia or Black Magic and Necromancy . But the latter raises the dead, and Goetia raises demons . According to the Count de Resie, this raising of the spirits of ancestors was merely performed in the way of family affection . The Canaanites practised it . Moses forbade it to the Jews as being opposed to the worship of the true God . It will be remembered that the Witch of Endor raised Samuel for Saul. Other necromancers are Orpheus, Phorontius, Cecrops, Apollonius of Thyana, Jamblichus, Porphyrius . Shakespeare used this magic art with powerful effect in his theatre (the three Witches in Macbeth put into their cauldron all the ingredients mentioned in the traditional formulae) .

Pacts

These were agreements, treaties entered into with the Devil with the view to obtaining special favours from him . They took the form of direct and formal agreements, or invocations through the intermediary of sorcerers, or acts which were to take effect through the power of the Prince of Darkness.

332

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The method of entering into these agreements is found mainly in the Great Clavicle of Solomon, which contains the Pacta conventa dcemoniorum . First we learn the names of the infernal dignitariesLucifer, the Emperor of Hell, Prince Beelzebub, the Grand Duke Astaroth ; the military chiefs Lucifuge, Satanachia, Fleurty, etc ., the subordinates Baal, Agares, etc . After this the procedure, the method of invocation, etc ., are stated . These invocations vary according to what is asked for, such as increasing one's property, finding a treasure, winning the loved woman, etc. The ink for the pacts was made of river water, gall-nut, Roman vitriol, alum, , gum arabic, the whole heated in a new vessel over a fire of vines cut during the full moon of March and ferns cut at midnight on St. John's Eve . Pentacles There are two kinds of pentacles, some universal (for invocations and spells), the others personal. Pentacles, says Pierre Piobb, are not talismans . The latter assist in the polarisation of fluids, THE GREAT PENTACLE OF SOLOMON . whereas pentacles contain the polarised fluids . Talismans are intermediaries, pentacles generators . In making them the following are required :1 . Draw a sacred symbol and enclose it in a double circle. 2. Inscribe within this double circle a sacred name or an appropriate verse from the sacred books. 3 . Perfume it with the perfume of the planet the nature of which corresponds to the purpose . 4 . Sing Psalms, cast spells, make incantations, if necessary offer sacrifices. The pentacle is drawn on a Wednesday at the hour of Mercury when the Moon is in a sign of air or earth and in the same degree as the sun. A pentacle must be engraved on metal corresponding to the planet whence it comes, or else on virgin parchment or china .

333 LOW MAGIC . Magic Perfumes We mention a few as curiosities :Friday's Perfume :-Musk, ambergris, aloe wood, red roses, the whole reduced to powder, mixed with the blood of doves and the brain of sparrows, made into a paste, then into grains, and consecrated with the following words :-" Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, Deus Jacob, bless all the creatures of the kinds contained in these odorous grains, so that they may increase the power and the virtue of their scent, that no enemy or phantom may abide in them . Per Dominum nostrum . Amen." Monday's Perfume :-The day of the Moon, frog's head, bull's eyes, seed of white poppy, pure incense such as storax or benzoin with a little camphor . The whole mixed with the blood of a turtledove, made into a paste, then into grains . And with it the magical operations of Monday are performed . Quaint formulae certainly . The Church is opposed to these contrivances . And yet do we not see in the pages of 'Holy Writ, in the story of Tobit, the angel leading him and commanding him, when he meets his wife, not to fail to make a perfume with the liver of a fish whom the angel had cut open, so that through the occult power of that perfume evil spirits might be restrained from harming him and be kept away from the bridal couch ? And after all what is the incense of religious rites but a survival of the magic of perfumes ? Philters and Charms Philters are mystic drinks producing certain sentiments ; those relating to love are the most sought after . There were also some for inspiring hate, courage, etc . Here is a specimen :-Dried periwinkle powdered and mixed with powdered earthworm induces love . A pinch dropped into food is sufficient to excite him who swallows it. As will be seen, philters and aphrodisiacs are not unrelated . So-called sacred plants usually entered into the composition of philters, such as thyme, marjoram, fennel, wild mint, hyssop, lily . Also some ashes like those of the dried heart of a dove, of a donkey's hoof, etc . Lustral water was a powerful philter . It used to be obtained as follows :-In a fountain of white marble the magicians collected storm water and at the end of five years killed in this thirteen doves, a virgin trout, a sheep, a bull, a black cat and a white dog . Then it was put into crystal flagons, and subsequently used for aspersions accompanied by incantations. The Holy Water of to-day is simpler . But he who

334 THE OCCULT SCIENCES uses it must not laugh at lustral water . Instead of lustral water a philter may be made of rain water in which for thirteen days thirteen kinds of sacred plants and the powder of a dove's heart are soaked . The sap of the hazelnut tree, the water from chick peas and hellebore seeds mixed, the water of garlic and pomegranates are also good philters . Charms are spells in the shape of words arranged in a certain way which are used to obtain miraculous effects . But there are also charms without words . Thus La Voisin claims to have received from a priest consecrated oils which made lips loving, and she promised some to Madame de Bauec. Enchantment was a kind of charm by means of song or music . Some snake charmers charm by movements of the eye . Others charm by playing the flute . The delightful legend of Orpheus will be remembered .

Domestic, Culinary, Medical and other Prescriptions

Cloth is made non-inflammable by washing it in salted water after having rubbed it with alum beaten up in the white of an egg . To be able to handle red hot iron, rub your hands with red arsenic and alum mixed in the juice of leek and laurel gum . Scorpions and snakes are driven out of a house by burning the lung of a donkey in it . To prevent rats from coming into your house, burn the hoof of a horse. To catch birds, scatter grain which has been soaked in wine lees and the juice of hemlock . Those which eat them will not be able to fly away. The seed of leek restores its strength to vinegar which has gone off. Crush and mix together marigold blooms, marjoram, wheaten flour, stale butter, goat's grease and earthworms, and you will obtain excellent bait for fishes . To get rid of fleas, sprinkle the room with water in which zinc sulphate has been dissolved . For sunburn, rub yourself at night with an ointment made of oil .of sweet almonds, wax and camphor . To prevent apples rotting, rub them with mint juice . The size of eggs is increased by mixing diluted red chalk in the hens' food. Chewing sorrel leaves is a good aperient . To cure a drunkard, make him drink wine in which an eel has been drowned. For sciatica use cow dung cooked under cinders in vine or cabbage leaves.

LOW MAGIC 335 Hot cow dung also cures the sting of bees, hornets, wasps, etc . Gallienus cured tumours and callouses on the knee with a paste made of goat dung diluted in barley flour and oxycrate . For boils and carbuncles, sheep dung diluted in vinegar and made into a poultice . For burns, fowl dung diluted in oil of roses . Raw corn well chewed and put on a tumour brings it to a head . Cooked in goose fat, earthworms cure earache . Drunk in wine they dissolve calculus . Swallowed in honey and water they cure jaundice . The ash of elm, oak, maple, ivy, birch, is an astringent . Gallienus also used it to stop nose bleeding . Rotten wood, placed on a purulent ulcer, cleanses and closes it . Cobweb put on a cut stops bleeding . To relieve a fit of the gout, apply the skinned root of henbane . The juice of the same plant, mixed with honey, eases liver troubles . The root of verbena, made into a poultice, cures fistulas, ulcers, haemorrhoids. The ash of frogs makes an excellent depilatory . Goat's horn, reduced to ash, strengthens the gums and stops dysentery. Boiled snails quickly reduce oedema . Hare's brain is a good emollient which facilitates the coming of the first teeth . Fine chimney soot mixed with good vinegar is a specific against chilblains . To avoid getting drunk, take before your meal a spoonful of olive oil mixed, if possible, with two spoonfuls of betony water . An infusion of parsley is good for women if their periods are irregular . We stop here, and advise a physician rather than any of these medical formulas, a good cook rather than the culinary ones . But at the same time an interesting book might be written by studying, commenting and dealing critically with the thousands of ancient prescriptions, many of which . must be left alone, but a great number of which, particularly those which include simples and herbs, might be tested in the light of modern experience and knowledge . Satanism In his preface to Satanism and Magic by Jules Bois, J . K. Huysmans divides the " Realm of the Fallen Angel " into two camps, Palladists and Luciferians . We leave High Freemasonry to deal with the Palladists, and will briefly speak of the Luciferians who have an Antipope, the head of a kind of parody of the Vatican . At the time

336 THE OCCULT SCIENCES of Huysmans, this black Holy Father, installed in the infernal Rome at Charleston, was a man of the name of Lemmi . His disciples follow a kind of reverse Catholicism and worship " the God of Evil," whilst the Palladists see in Satan the true Adonai, the Element of Goodness . In both cases, it will be seen, there is faith in the Devil.' A very old faith indeed . Luciferism is nothing but an off-shoot of Manichaeism . Its attraction lies in the fact that it includes apostate priests, thieves of the Host, supporters of sacrilege, such as the Canon Docre created by the author of Ld-Bas . Formerly, as we have seen, Satanism invaded Witchcraft (Sabbath, raising of Evil Spirits, etc .) Various books, among them one by Jules Bois, contain complete descriptions of scenes of black magic, the Sabbath itself, diabolic confessions and pacts, ancient black masses . But it is well known that the cult of Satan has not died out, and that even in our days modernised black masses have been and are being said . Some of them, called " Offices of the vain Observance," perpetuate the Albigense heresy . Others, in the 17th century, were called " sacrilegious masses of Guibourg," and had the added horror of the killing of a child on the wanton nakedness of a woman . Then there is the extraordinary Mass according to Ezechiel and according to Vintras described by Huysmans, who also speaks of one which he claims to be used in the dark and distant district of Vaugirard . We are assured that all these black follies are by no means fallen into disuse yet . 2 Other devilries were incubi and succubi, connections between women and devils, devils and mystics . These queer connections abounded in olden times, at least in imagination, and even in the 19th century we see a man like Caudenberg tell of his relations with the Virgin (about 1854), and a whole series of demoniac connections arises in brains which are overexcited by eroticism, and tales of vampirism . We have no wish to go into these follies, and only mention them to show the survival of Witchcraft, and the danger which lies in not confining Occultism to the great and splendid data which are sufficient to make it interesting and magnificent .

Sorcery and Curses

Here are some curses which it is possible to put on others or to receive, together with the means of escaping them, if we are to believe a little book by Professor Asmodeus :• See, in the Appendix, the enquiry of Messrs . Nadaud and Pelletier, into modem witches and Satanists. • Here, as in the Sabbath, a kind of erotic sadism induces practices which seem most blas. phemous. And almost always the Black Mass uses a naked woman as altar on which the Host is defiled.

LOW MAGIC 337 Knots.-" Tying the knot ." This is used against lovers or newly married couples . Go to the place where the lovers or the newly married couple usually meet . As soon as you see them, quickly tie a knot in a lace which you have in your hand . ' Watch their eyes, and as soon as they look at each other, make a second knot . The knot is tied, especially if the appropriate magical words have been uttered . The couple is bewitched, and their love is accursed . To turn this curse aside, you must turn your wedding ring three times round the finger, and wear on your breast the sacred guardian stone of destinies . Spider.-To turn aside the bad luck due to seeing a spider in the morning or at noon, pick up some dust and throw it on to the spot where the spider passed, saying " Ada." " Ada " is a well known magic word . The Evil Eye . Curse is another word for this . The chief curses are the evil eye or jettatura, and the casting of spells . As to the casting of s ells, see under that heading . As to the evil eye, most Italians firm believe in it, and to turn it aside use a little horn of coral and turn it point forward towards any one who " casts the evil eye," muttering the word " corna." Obsessions.-To cure them, says the Book of Black Science, cook a calf's foot, make it into a paste with goose fat, cinnamon and pepper, and rub it on your chest seven days in succession . Vampirism In Magic this is the act of one human being sucking up the vital fluid of another human being . The Vampire acts for himself or for a third party . As will be seen, it is to some extent the opposite of magnetism . Fluid vampirism, says Pierre Piobb, takes many forms . As soon as one person dominates another, he consciously or not withdraws vital fluid from him . Some people use their friends for the purpose of increasing their own nervous energy . This happens in the case of " arrivists," people without heart who drop their connections as soon as they have ceased to be useful. " Faith " is a phenomenon of magic vampirism in this sense that the operator uses vampirism to form a strong single-minded eggregore (group consciousness) . This is for instance what Christ did with his apostles. The " evil eye" is also a kind of vampirism ; as we have seen it is turned aside by a movement of the hand in shape of a horn . Any one fearing some evil from a chance meeting may disperse the dangerous fluid of the person met by touching iron, this metal

338

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being a good conductor which carries the fluid down to the earth, provided it touches the ground . III

Good Luck and Bad Luck We shall not here take the part of either " strong minds " or " weak minds ." We shall confine ourselves to saying that very many " strong minds " have secret dreads and sometimes unconfessed superstitions, and that among the " weak minds " are to be found numbers of scientists, men of genius and military and other celebrities . We find in this 20th century of ours some airman who takes a black cat up with him as his mascot, a boxer making the sign of the cross before entering the ring, an actress who never goes on the stage without having made a cross of two matches, or a courtesan burning a candle to obtain success in love . Let us all search into the very bottom of our hearts and ask ourselves if we have not at some time or other, in certain circumstances, sought some thing which brings luck or avoided some other which may bring ill luck. We all more or less believe in good luck and in bad luck of which we will now say a few words . Lucky and Unlucky Presents For the sake of information only let us draw up first tables of those articles which, according to Tradition, carry good or bad luck, offering our apologies for any repetition there may be of information given previously under other headings .

TABLE OF PRESENTS GIVEN BY A MAN TO A WOMAN Bringing good luck Bringing bad luck 1. JEWELS 1 . JEWELS Rings of gold or silver without Rings of glass or cut stone . stones or pearls, or with a black Ring of gold or silver with fine pearls pearl, ruby, sapphire, diamond, or turquoise, amethyst, aquacameo . marine, opal, coral, jet . Gold or silver chain bracelet . Locket (risk of quarrel or break). Jewelled buttons. Pin (tie, hair or hat) unless it is Ear-rings in rings, diamonds, pearls, set with a lucky stone and has emeralds. been exchanged for a penny Brooch (if a penny with a hole in with a hole in it . it is given in exchange) . Watch (with inscription engraved) . Necklace with odd number of pearls .

Bringing good luck 2.

LOW MAGIC

VARIOUS ARTICLES

A magnet . An album. A jewel case. A shawl . A crystal cup . An engraved gold or silver thimble A tooth set as a jewel . A stole (fur or silk) . A pair of gloves . A book. A lamp. An engraved medal. A Chinese vase . Vases. A spinning wheel with its spindle full . A picture. A violin. 3.

FLOWERS

Rose (white or red) . White and red carnation . Lily, convolvulus, clematis, mistletoe. Daisy, lilac, clover, wall-flower. Hawthorn, everlasting flower, cornflower. Poppy, forget-me-not . Four-leaved clover . 4.

FRUITS

Grapes (white or black) . Pomegranates, oranges . A divided almond of which he keeps the other half. 5.

SCENTS

Carnation, rose, violet. Wallflower, amber, fern . Cut hay, and generally all sweet scents.

339

Bringing bad luck 2.

VARIOUS ARTICLES

A wooden box. A handkerchief. A portrait. A nail file . A belt. A scarf . A pair of shoes . An umbrella . A looking-glass. Curtains . A nail . A trunk. A hair . Cotton. Tongs . A note book, a pencil . An ink pot, a pen. A knife. 3.

FLOWERS

4.

FRUITS

Briar, bramble, cypress, holly . Hemlock, nettle, tuberose, cyclamen . Poppy, jonquil, autumn colchicum . Digitalis, moss, grass. And generally all green and all poisonous plants.

Chestnuts. Wild plum. Dried figs . Pears. 5.

SCENTS

Trefle incarnat, bergamot . Musk, patchouli, ylang-ylang . And generally all strong perfumes .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

340

TABLE OF PRESENTS GIVEN BY A WOMAN TO A MAN

Bringing good luck 1.

JEWELS

A plain engraved ring of gold or silver or set with a coloured stone. A watch with inscription engraved. A chain (first thrown into the water) . A pearl tie pin . 2 . VARIOUS ARTICLES

A walking stick (mahogany, oak or malacca) . Gloves. Tobacco . A cup. A writing table . A picture . 3. FLOWERS

Red or white rose . Camellia and gardenia . Violet and cornflower. And specially pansy . 4 . FRUITS

Apples, plums, peaches . Mandarines and grapes . 5. SCENTS

Lavender (sweetness) . Iris (tender promise) .

Bringing bad luck 1.

JEWELS

A card-case. A sovereign-case . A locket . Cuff links. Studs . A cigar-case . A cigarette-case.

2 . VARIOUS ARTICLES

A purse . A portrait . A tie or a hat . A key, a pin or a nail . An inkpot or a strong box . Linen (a handkerchief, etc .) 3 . FLOWERS

Peony, geranium. Glycinia, acacia . Periwinkle, columbine. And all yellow flowers . Medlar . Nut.

4 . FRUITS

5 . SCENTS

Generally All strong scents .

Lucky and Unlucky Days

Generally considered lucky are :Monday, the day of the Moon : calm and sweetness . Wednesday, the day of Mercury : success. Thursday, the day of Jupiter : courage and will-power . Sunday, the day of the Lord : joy and repose . On the other hand considered unlucky are :Tuesday, the day of Mars : struggles, quarrels, failure . Friday, the day of Venus : passion (in Rome the Senate did not sit on Friday) Saturday, the day of Saturn : danger, death.

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A Hindu belief, dating back to Sanscrit times, credited the hours also with good or bad influence . The unfavourable hour (Iraghon Kalam, commonly called Rakalon) is balanced by the hour of good omen (Khonlighei Kalam) . The following table has been compiled for the hours of each day of the week, the hours being numbered from one to twenty-four for the sake of convenience . DAYS

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday 'Thursday Friday Saturday

LUCKY HOURS From 15 to 16 .30 o'clock . From 13 .30 to 15 o'clock From 12 to 13 .30 o'clock

From 10 to 12 o'clock From 9 to 10.30 o'clock From 7 .30 to 9 o'clock From 6 to 7 .30 o'clock

UNLUCKY HOURS From 16 .30 to 18 o'clock. From 7 .30 to 9 o'clock . From 15 to 16 .30 o'clock From 12 to 13 .30 o'clock From 13 .30 to 15 o'clock From 10 .30 to 12 o'clock

From 9 to 10 .30 o'clock

Cledomancy

Cledomancy was the name of the science of words bringing good or bad luck, fatidic or conjuring words . Here is a table of them, but it is unnecessary to say that we only give it by way of information, to show how far some people went in their faith in the magic power of the word . Abbe. Cabala . Devil. Credo. Miracle ! Good God ! Phantom.

Steel. Sorrow . Bury. Alas ! Motus . By God ! Per ada . 2 Perdidi . Gratias . Lug . Finis. Ada.

FiTIDIC WORDS Needle. Chaos . By the Blue Blood . Horns of the Devil . Vlan ! Death . CONJURING WORDS Ada rama . Dulco . Ignoto . Exegi . Hie. Anima.

Ada. 1 Soloma . Deo . Ada lug . Simpre . Ada . Corpus . I The mere uttering of the magic word "ada " preserves from bad

Atheist. Heaven . By my Mother. By Satan ! Werewolf. Ghost .

I ada . Felix. Bene . Festina . 'Ada . Fortunate.

luck . Good luck is sure if you say it every morning and every evening, turning towards the North and the South . I The combination of the two Magic words "ada et sacraments " has special virtues, all of good omen.

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WORDS BRINGING GOOD LUCK

Good. Isis. Dia.

Well. Io .

Perfect. Eol.

Hell. Pitch . Misfortune.

Curse . Sticky.

WORDS BRINGING BAD LUCK

Bad luck. IL Damned.

Sun. Luck. Ill luck . Misery .

Etymological Analogies Whereas the word chance comes from an expression in the game of dice, the word cheance (the act of falling) denotes the number of pips shown by the fallen dice. Chance became vein (good luck) at the time of the rush of the goldseekers to California, the vein being strictly speaking different in its composition from the rock of which it formed part . Then, as the filon is a kind of thread of precious metal running through the rock, like a vein in the human body, but which it sometimes takes many long days to find, this word also became a popular synonym for luck . From vein b analogy came the word deveine, its opposite . If the devein (bad luck persists, it becomes guigne or guignon, in slang the sticker or pitch . The mere saying of the last two words brings bad luck . And yet good and bad luck are the result not so much . of chance as of qualities and defects . Good luck is generally worked up to by will-power, prudence, foresight (sometimes instinctive, unconscious), bad luck results from a series of carelessness, lack of energy, unsustained effort . It will be well, therefore, to count first of all on ourselves so that good luck may subsequently help us and bad luck leave us . Nonetheless good luck and bad luck do exist. But it has been noticed that good luck not brought about or sustained by effort does not last, and that sudden fortunes are usually unstable . One evening when Taglioni had had a very great success on the stage, a young dancer came up and said to her " Ah, you have good luck." " True," said the star, " but I cultivate it every day ." " You have perhaps a talisman," said the girl, who did not understand . " Come and see me to-morrow at home, and I will show it to you ." The dancer went to see Taglioni and was present at a long series of exercises, at the end of which the famous artist sank exhausted into an armchair and said I Use as synonyms " the thing " or " the cherry," and if by chance you say the fatal word, quickly touch wood to avert the evil fate

LOW MAGIC 343 " You see my talisman, it is called work ." An apt lesson . But it does not alter the fact that good and bad luck do exist . Fetishes The belief in fetishes involves the belief in obscure powers which dwell hidden in certain objects, which generally by their shape evoke the idea of incantation . Such for instance are the coral horns so highly valued in Italy, because they recall those of the devil, and that wearing them will prevent Satan, flattered by this imitation, to cause us worries . So also it is certain that the superstition which credits some animals with the power of bringing good or bad luck, and which is accounted for by some striking detail (the owl, son of the Night, with its silent flight, for instance, the bat dwelling in ruins, the swallow messenger of spring, etc .), is the result of many coincidences carefully collected . But it must also be noted-and this is a matter of psychologythat the fetish often has a real power, due to the esteem in which it is held and the fact that it puts you into a state of self-confidence thanks to which success is more likely . It was due to the knowledge of this truth that Mahommed obtained miracles of bravery from his troops in his battles by assuring them that thousands of angels fought by their side ; sustained by this illusion they fought with redoubled ardour and often were victorious . In short the fetish is an assurance against weakness . What, then, matters the origin of its power, if it brings triumph ? On the other hand one observation has been made at all times, it is that Luck comes to a man at least once in his life, sometimes twice and thrice. Woe to him then who does not see it or does not know how to grasp it . But the belief in Good Luck is not without its danger ; it entails the belief in Bad Luck, in which no one ought ever to believe, for it stops all initiative through fear of failure . Luck does not favour hesitation. Audaces fortuna juvat ! Good luck goes to the daring . Daring is the source of almost all success, and only the timid will believe in his bad luck . Further Notes on Good Luck To say of some one, " He has had luck " means that Good Luck visited him at a specified moment . To say, " He is lucky " means that it is with him constantly . Now what is Good Luck if not a chain of fortunate events, eachone of which has its cause ? Is the chance which thus connects them the result of an occult will ? Is it the mere unforeseen meeting of the

344 THE OCCULT SCIENCES elements which constitute the former? In any case it has a cause like every phenomenon, but this cause is more or less easy to discover . And it is because there is one or more causes that a directing will may and can succeed in invoking a power which is greater . This is why Good Fortune nearly always responds to the persistent appeal of sustained effort . We must assist luck. It is not by remaining inactive, by despising letters, efforts, connections, etc ., that we succeed in any matter, of whatsoever kind it may be . Nor is it by remaining ignorant of ourselves, our abilities, tendencies, characteristics, etc . In order to be lucky, begin by thoroughly knowing yourself, by discovering your instincts, your tastes, your qualities, and also your defects . Then give to your " personal chances " the frame, the surroundings which suit them, the food necessary to their development. Theoretically, observes R. Schwaeble, l a man who knows himself thoroughly, by means of the occult sciences, would be able to use all his qualities and restrain all his defects, and would succeed in everything . And it is the fact . Luck is often only the ability to grasp the opportunities offered by chance . But this ability comes of an aptitude which itself comes from qualities of observation, patience, daring . The example of great men who have been called lucky proves that if Chance did call upon them, they in fact knew how to recognise it and turn it to account . No doubt Napoleon would not have had the opportunity of proving his exceptional qualities of organiser and military chief in less troublous times, but it was through his genius that he made use of this coincidence . No doubt Jenner, when a student, was lucky to hear a feverish peasant, suspected of smallpox, say that she could not possibly have it, as " she had already had the Cow's disease," this expression giving rise to the idea of vaccine ; but had this chance not been offered to other doctors, who had neglected to make use of it ? Papus, in a chapter of his remarkable Book of Luck called " The Woman of the World," but which may be applied to everyone, men and women, draws a very apt comparison between luck, or rather bad luck, and slander . Here, he says, we have a woman of the world, intelligent, beautiful and wealthy, whose good fortune seems to be lasting . But, one day, suddenly the golden dream flies away, bad luck settles down at her hearth, troubles, catastrophes succeed each other . Who is mysteriously responsible for this upheaval ? The woman herself, who spent her time at home speaking and allowing to be spoken evil of others . 1 The Book of Lark .

LOW MAGIC 345 Thus Evil sowed its seeds, dug its roots, grew its stem-and its fruits . People smiled at these slanders in the drawing room of the lady ; she was thought smart ; unkind remarks about one or the other, sometimes her best friends, were amusing . But the friends and others ended by knowing that evil was being spoken of them . Squabbles arose, relations were broken off ; and this was the beginning of the ills which soon poured down upon the House of Slander . Friends, relatives, no longer gave good advice, good " tipsters " no longer tried to be useful to the lovely chatterbox or to her husband, no longer gave warning of this or that risk, being in their turn glad to harm those who harmed others. Bad investments followed, good business disappeared, assistance of all kinds was lacking . And as everything stands together, in Society as in the Universe, the isolated House in the end collapsed . Moral :-Never speak evil of others . Never allow it to be spoken in front of you . Protect absent friends . Contradict evil reports . And it will be said of you that you are good, faithful and sure . And you will be loved. Being loved, you will be assisted in those thousand different ways which favour, or rather which create, good luck . IV The Language of Flowers Everybody loves flowers . The rich man has expensive ones in his beds and his hothouses ; the poor man, the working girl, the little sempstress have modest ones which smile in their window boxes . Poets have sung the charm of flowers which are the symbol of a life all too short but sometimes so perfumed by joy, tenderness or art . None is insensible to the beauty of their petals, even those who in other matters are cold or dry at . heart . Whence comes this fascination ? Perhaps it is because there are no ugly flowers . Amongst animals there are toads, spiders, blackbeetles, repulsive beasts . But does any flower cause dislike ? Each one is sympathetic by its beauty, or its scent, or its daintiness . And then the flower is sun and cheerfulness . Flowers perfume the days of spring, embellish summer, make autumn bearable, sometimes even defy winter. They bring eternal charm to Nature and into the Home. The flower," writes Chateaubriand divinely, " is the daughter of Morning, the charm of spring, the source of perfume, the fascination of the virgin, the love of the poet . It fades quickly like man, but it 66

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 346 gently returns its leaves to earth . The essence of its perfumes is preserved-they are thoughts which survive it . In days of old it . crowned the cup at the banquet and the white hair of the wise man . The early Christians used it to cover their martyrs and the altar in the catacombs . To-day and in memory of those olden times we place it in our temples. We attribute our affections to its colours, hope to its leaves, innocence to its whiteness, chastity to its delicate tints .' Flowers are loved . They are made into nosegays for pretty women, the beloved betrothed, the gentle wife . They decorate our furniture, our balconies, our altars . Their petals are slipped into our love letters, they are dried in our books . At festivals they are offered to our parents, our friends, our chiefs . They are brought to weddings .. They are placed on the tomb . They are brought into sacred and profane matters. They are seen at the ball and in Church . There are flowers everywhere-in the valley, in the woods and the fields, at the water's edge, on the slope of mountains . There is no plain which has not its own kind, and the beautiful blue thistle blooms even in the driest of sand dunes. Flowers accompany us in our happiness and in our sorrow. They comfort the patient by brightening his dull room . With their sweetness they intoxicate the boudoir of the loved woman and the den of the bachelor . They are the friends of all our days . They speak . Yes, they have been given a language. Legend credits this stratagem of lovers communicating by the voice of flowers to the adventure of a young Arab who loved a Pasha's daughter . It was Axiania who invented this means of chattering with Mohammed without saying anything simply through the flowers which she tended . Through her was born the Selam or language of flowers . The following selams or speaking nosegays are quoted by some old writers :Thuya + Clover + periwinkle + pink carnation My heart will not alter.-May I hope ?-My friendship will last for life .-My faithfulness is equal to all tests. Another :-Thyme + rosemary + elder + white jasmine + convolvulus + mignonette + everlasting flower = The sight of you thrills me. Your presence scatters my trouble . You comfort me in every sorrow. You are amiable and charm me . Your qualities surpass your charms. Always yours . My friendship is without end. Yet another :-Forget-me-not, pansies, white carnation and veronica together say :-Do not forget me, for I think of you ; my love is great and pure and I give you my heart . And yet another :-Absinthe with hydrangea, balsam and helenia -The pain which your indifference and your disdain cause me is the reason for my tears .

LOW MAGIC 347 A well arranged nosegay takes the place of a letter, lacks its perils, and for the timid, its disadvantages. A nosegay is never indiscreet, compromising or disrespectful, whilst at the same time occasionally it is not without daring . In the following table will be found the thoughts suggested by flowers or the words whose place they take . They are not always the same with all writers . Some legendary and easily explained meanings are found everywhere . Thus for instance the honeysuckle and the ivy are signs of attachment ; the stinging thistle a sign of revenge ; the everlasting flower a sign of faithfulness, etc . It is with this aim in view that we have modified various meanings so as to bring them more into accord with the symbol of the plant . Occasionally we have preserved two or three well known meanings . But in all these cases we should strongly advise lovers who wish to avail themselves of these mute dialogues, each to buy this book and to cross out in pencil every double or triple meaning so as to leave only one clear one for each flower . Neglect of this precaution might cause misunderstandings and even calamities ! The following are the traditional meanings given to a certain number of flowers :A Absinthe-Heartache, absence, separation . Apricot (flower , of)-Timid love. Acacia-Platonic love . Also, you are all grace and elegance . Acanthus-Love of art . Also, .nothing will be able to separate us . Achilleia-Disputes, quarrels. . Aconite-Your. disdain will kill me. Amaranth-Constancy (its name means, which does not fade) . Amaryllis-Pride, vanity. You are too fond of shining . Anemone-Break . Go away ! (reminder of the flighty nymph Anemone) . Angelica-Inspiration . I am in ecstasy (Angel) . Aristolochus-You are a tyrant ! (Powerful juice and large leaves) . Asphodel-I regret the past . Aster-Daintiness . Also, have you really told me the truth ? Azalea-Your passion is fragile and ephemeral . Barren regrets. (Fatal gift) . B

Balsam-You have offended me . You are cold . Basil-I hate you . Also, I am poor (Basil was an emblem of poverty) . Begonia-Beware ! I am fanciful . Belladonna-1 bring bad luck (fatal gift) .

Buttercup-Mockery, don't laugh at me . Also spite.

348

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Blackthorn-How many obstacles there are to our love ! Box (always green)-I never change . Stoicism in adversity . Briar-I love solitude . Bilberry-Confession of deceit . Bugloss-Lies . You are falseness personified . Bramble-Envy . Jealousy . Injustice . Barberry-You are a bad lot. Burdock-You bore me . Burnt-You are my only love . Bindweed-Passing friendship without results . C Camellia-Constancy. I shall love you always . Camomile-I am always devoted to you. Campanula (Mirror of Venus)-You are charming but somewhat proud . Centaury-Our love is perfect happiness . Colchicum-Our pleasant time is over . Let us separate (this is an autumn flower) . Columbine-I am madly in love with you (its bell shaped flower resembles a fool's staff) . Convolvulus-You are a coquette . Also, humble perseverance. Cornflower-Daintiness . Innocent charm . Heavenly heart. Cinquefoil-Walk by moonlight . Also, I love my family. Cedar (red)-My parents are dissatisfied . Carnation (white)-You inspire me with pure sentiments . Carnation (red)-You inspire me with worldly sentiments . Carnation (pink)-I answer you favourably . Carnation (purple)-You inspire me with antipathy . Carnation (double)-I must think . Carnation (Sweet William)-You are perfect . Clover-Doubt, uncertainty . May I hope? Clover (yellow)-I should like to, at once . Clover (red)-You do please me ! Clover (purple)-I am staying at home . Cyclamen-Good-bye . Cypress (the tree of the grave)-Our love is dead . Regrets and tears. D Daffodil-You are deceiving me . Dahlia-Barren abundance (it has no scent) . Many words but no soul . Digitalis (flowers like glove fingers, a narcotic)-Beauty but too careless, I am afraid of you . Dipsacus (a thistle the flowers of which keep the dew) I thirst after you . Dogrose-Poetry. Spring . Beginning of love. You have enchanted me . Will you love me? Dandelion-Dull jealousy .

LOW MAGIC

E Easter Daisy-Let us enjoy our youth . Elderfdower-Kindness . Eucalyptus-Love of travelling.

349

F Fennel (aromatic)-What a strong perfume of love Fern-Confidence and sincerity . Have faith in me . Flax--Simplicity, gratitude . Forget-me-not-Forget me not . Foxtail-You are spiteful . Figwood-I shall justify myself . Fir (twig of)-I am afraid of suffering . Fuchsia-You are full of attentions, but you are wasting your time . Fumiter (bitter taste)-You are unkind ! G Gardenia-I love you in secret . Gorse-My thoughts for you (or your thoughts for me) are like golden butterflies . Geranium (white)-you are frank . Geranium (pink)-You are childish . Geranium (red)-You are an idiot . (Together-I respect but don't love you) . Glycinia-It is only friendship, but mutual. Gladiola (swordshaped leaves)-You pierce my heart . Guelder rose-Slander . Or, I love you less . Golden rod-Friendly scolding. H Hawthorn-Sweet hope . Timid request . You are the queen, the only one . Helena-Tears . You are hurting me . Heliantus-Do not trust to appearances . Heliotrope-Intoxication of love . I am enchanted . Hemerocallus (blue)-Perseverance. Hemerocallus (yellow)-Unfaithfulness . Henbane-I do not trust you . Hollyhock-Beauty . Hellebore (was thought to cure madness)-You are too smart. Hemlock-Perfidy . Poison. Beware of treachery . And, we must die ! (In olden times those condemned to death were " allowed to commit suicide " by drinking the poison which can be extracted from this) . Honeysuckle-Bond of love . We belong to each other . Holly-Take care ! Hyacinth (white)-Benevolence. Be good ! Hyacinth (blue)-I have my suspicions . Hyssop-I am tired of you . Hydrangea (a beautiful flower without scent)-You are beautiful, but cold .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES I Immortelle-Always yours ! (it does not fade) . Ivy-Eternal friendship (or love) . I die where I cling . J Jasmin (white)-Our love will be so sweet ! Jasmin (yellow)-Our love will be passionate . Jasmin (red)-Our love will be intoxication, folly . Jonquil-Violent sympathy. Desire, I die of love. Julian-You have made a mistake. L Laurel (glory)-I shall conquer you . Laurel rose-It is a mere flirtation . Lavender-Fervent but silent love . Lilac (white)-First dream of love . Lilac (mauve)-Do you still love me? Lily (white)-Purity. Lily (tiger)-Pride and wealth . Lily of the valley-Renewed happiness . Let us make it up . Laburnum-You have broken my heart. Larkspur-Read in my heart . Limetree-It is conjugal love that I want . Lettuce (plagiarism of the cornflower)-I am disappointed . Lobelia-Kind thoughts . Lupin-Need of rest . Lychnis-Irresistible sympathy . M

Mandragora-Alas ! I am too poor.

Marguerite-Innocence . Do you love me ? Marguerite (China aster)-I shall fight against Fate. Marjoram-I shall comfort you . Also, free love. Mallow-Gentle and pure affection . Marshmallow-You are gentle . Be kind. Medlar-Be more daring. Mint-Violent love. Mimosa-Great daintiness . Moneywort-I am disinterested. Moss-Friendship, nothing more . Myrtle-Love returned, I also love you . Mignonette-Hidden love. Also, I am modest . Mistletoe-I surmount everything . I shall conquer . .Marigold-Disquiet . What is the matter with you ?

(Bad omen) .

LOW MAGIC N

Narcissus-Egotism. Conceit. Nasturtium-Flame of love. You light it in my heart . Nenuphar-Coldness . You are made of ice . Nicotine-The obstacle is overcome . Nigello-Bonds of love . Nettle-Cruelty. You break my heart. 0

Olive branch-Reconciliation . The palm of peace. Orange flower-Virginity. I shall not sin, Orchid-Magnificence .

P

Poppy (small, sign of sleep)-Rest . I am very quiet. Poppy (white)-My heart is asleep . Poppy (black)-I have forgotten you .

Pansy-Think of me as I think of you. Periwinkle-Sweet memories . Pimpernel-Own that you are beaten . Petunia-I am furious . Or, why this anger ? Prickwood-Your image is engraved on my heart . Phlox (white)-Proposal of love . Phlox (blue)-Illusion in love . Phlox (purple)-Sweet dreams. Peony-I am ashamed of what I have done (I blush' for it) . Planetree-They are lies. Polygala-They are slandering you (or me) . Potato (flower)-I thank you . Primula-We are young. Let us love each other ! Plum (flowers)-I remind you of your promises . Privet-I am on the defensive . Or, you are very young. R Rosemary-Exclusive love. Rhubarb-Don't lose heart. Reed-I like music (the flute of Pan) . Ragwort-I am humble but proud . Rose (generally)-How beautiful you are to me . How I love you . Rose (red)-Desire. Rose (white)-You are innocent and so charming . Rose (moss)-We shall love each other much in the country . Rose (Alpine)-I want to work to win you . Rose (tea)-Our love will be fruitful . Rose (wild)-I shall follow you everywhere . Rose full blown-Early marriage.

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Rue (wild)-I like my independence . Rye-Alas, I am poor . Rose mellow-Beauty. S Strawberry-You are delicious . I want you . Also, you are good. Snowdrop-Let us hope for better days . Saffron-I call you back to moderation . Sagittarius-Break (these definite floral meanings must only be used very great care) . Sainfoin (oscillating flowers)-I hesitate . And, you misunderstand me. Sarsaparilla-I offer you atonement . Soapwort-Sensual love . Sardonyx-I laugh at you . Sage-I respect you deeply . Saxifrage-I am in despair . Scabious (the flower of widows)-You forsake me . Or, I forsake you . Solomon's Seal-The secret will be duly kept . Scolopender-Slander, libel . Sensitive plant-I am very sensitive . Be careful . Don't hurt me . Syringa-You intoxicate me . Sunflower-False virtue . False wealth . Also, my eyes see only you. Spirea-My will is tenacious . Stramony-Your charms deceive. Sycamore (leaves)-I am going away for a time . Sylvia-Open your heart . T

Tobacco (flower)-I want to forget . Tamarind-I am careful . Or, be careful . Tamaris-Count on my protection . Thlaspi-I shall comfort you . Thyme (wild)-You have been thoughtless . You are too careless . Thyme-On seeing you I am thrilled . Tuberose-I think of death . Tulip-You are wonderful Tulip (double)-You will succeed . We shall succeed . V Valerian-Dissimulation (fatal gift) . Veronica-Our thoughts are in accord . Verbena-Platonic love . Vesper flower-These are our last lovely days (Vesper, evening) . Vine (leaves)-You intoxicate me . Vine (wild)-Poetry, imagination . Violet-Modesty, simplicity, chastity .

LOW MAGIC Violet (Parnia)-Let me love you. Violet (double)-I return your love (or your friendship) .

353

Y Yew-Sorrow, affliction (to give a branch of it) . Yucca-Until death. Zinnia-Take care .

Z V

The Symbolism and the Magic of Stones For the Alchemist everything lives . For the Occultist everything can become symbolical . Do minerals react on the body ? In any case we have to-day a metallotherapy, just as we have an electrotherapy, a magnetotherapy and a psychotherapy . Stones live . The pearl loses its water, and is then said to die . In assuming death we also assume life . Besides some scientists definitely claim that there are metallic ferments. However this may be, in olden times men believed in the virtue of stones, both medical and magic. They found relations between the stones and the stars . They invented a symbolism of stones . For convenience of reference we give tables showing what these beliefs were. TABLE SHOWING THE SYMBOLISM AND VIRTUES OF STONES (From the Ratnapariksa of Buddhabhatta) (6th Century B . C.) Their names . The Diamond.

Their symbolism. Reconciliation and love .

The Garnet. The Amethyst .

Loyalty and frankness . Happiness, wealth .

The Jasper.

Courage and wisdom .

The Sapphire.

Truth and clear conscience, Hope and faithful love.

The Emerald.

Their virtues . Makes faithful in undertakings. Gives sincerity of heart. Gives courage and keeps from drunkenness . Gives constancy and married happiness. Gives repentance for faults committed . Gives knowledge of the future .

354 Their names . The Agate . The Ruby. The Cornelian. The Opal . The Topaz. The Turquoise . The Olivine. The Peridot . The Aquamarine .

T H E

OCCULT SCIENCES Their virtues . Their symbolism . Prosperity, long life . Gives health. Preserves from false friendBeauty, daintiness . ships . Disperses evil thoughts and Joy, peace. sorrow. Increases faithfulness . Prayer, tender love. Eager love . Stays evil dreams . Ensures success in love. Courage and hope . Simplicity and modesty . Innocent pleasures. Encourages marriage . Thunderbolt. Ensures constant happiYouth and Health . ness.

TABLE OF THE PROPERTIES OF STONES (according to Fraya) Black agate defends against envy and makes athletes invincible . Red agate defends against the sting of spiders and scorpions, against storm and lightning. Aquamarine worn as earring brings affection . Amber as a necklace for children defends them against convulsions . Amethyst protects against drunkenness and poison if the images of the sun and the moon are engraved on it . Chrysolith protects against gout and madness, and facilitates searches . Coral protects against epidemics . It turns pale when a loved person is going to die . Cornelian protects against ruin and betrayal . Carbuncle gives self-confidence, constancy and energy . Hematite gives success in lawsuits. Jade cures colic and kidney troubles . Cat's-eye protects against spells and the evil eye . Onyx soothes nocturnal oppressions and dispels nightmares. Peridot dispels female betrayal and encourages friendship. Ruby dispels sadness and love troubles . Sapphire gives health, preserves the sight, protects chastity . Sardonyx leads to high position . Selenite strengthens surrounding sympathies . Topaz is a talisman against hatred and revenge . Turquoise protects against danger when travelling . ANOTHER TABLE OF THE SYMBOLISM OF STONES Hematite-Vivacity. Black Agate-Courage . Hyacinth-Faithfulness Red Agate-Calm . Jade-Power. Aquamarine-Hope. Magnet-Integrity . Jet-Mourning .

LOW MAGIC Amber-Health . Jasper-Joy. Amethyst-Peace of heart . Lapis-lazuli-Ability . Beryl (see Aquamarine) . Cat's Eye-Long life . Chiridion'--talisman of love . Onyx-Clearness . Chrysolith 2-Wisdom . Opal-Confidence . Chrysoprase3-Gaiety. Peridot-Happiness. Coral-Attachment . Pearl-Purity . Adamant-Tranquillity of soul . Ruby-Ardent love . Cornelian3-Friendship . Sapphire-Innocence . Diamond-Frankness . Sardonyx-Vivacity. Emerald-Faithfulness . Selenite4-Intelligence. Carbuncle-Assurance . Topaz-Gentleness . Garnet-Strength . Turquoise-Success .

355

VI Symbolism and Influence of Colours Colour, the daughter of Light, was bound to interest men in olden times, just as shapes, numbers, stones, etc . Fruit is judged by its colour . And also sometimes people . Have we not seen the importance which chiromancers attach to the colour of the hand, or typologers to the colour of the face ? Look at the livid and leaden complexion of the perverted youth, the purple nose of the drunkard, the cadaverous hue of the dying. Distrust pale women, said Balzac . Plants also have their characteristic colours, such as the vivid red of the summer poppy full of sun, the melancholy reds and browns of autumn, the repulsive green of some poisonous plants . We must not neglect colours . Always they were treated as symbolical . According to Ely Star, moral light corresponds to yellow, intellectual light to blue, the light of instinct to red . Who does not remember the celebrated sonnet which gave a colour to each vowel ? Does not the bull attacking a red cloak denote the fury of a brutal instinct let loose ? The law of the septenary seems to govern Colour . There are seven principal colours in the visible rainbow . Colour is taken into account in Therapeutics ; this is an explained fact . As Occultism teaches that everything in Nature which is governed by the same number is also subject to the laws relating to this number, there is a whole Magic of Colours into which unfortunately we cannot go in detail, but which is of great interest . We will merely mention that purple is tonic, and that it is beneficial 1

A kind of Turquoise with black lines . Both a kind of Agate .

' A kind of Topaz . 4 Also called Moonstone .

356 THE OCCULT SCIENCES to pin a piece of sateen of this colour to a window through which the sun shines so that the effect may be felt on a part of the body which is aching ; that red gives heat (Le Clerc, former Benedictine and astrologer to Napoleon I, in his old age never went out without being wrapped in a scarlet cape) ; that golden yellow calms the nerves and helps inspiration (the Thibetan and Japanese priests and others wear dalmatics of this shade) ; that blue has electric powers, green has the same powers as the mud baths at Dax, indigo, the brother of water, refreshes ; that white gives cheerful thoughts, black dark thoughts . Let us in conclusion give two more tables :A . Zodiacal and planetary relations (founded on the houses of the sky) :Libra-Water green. Ram-Fire . Taurus-Dark green. Scorpio-Scarlet . Sagittarius-Sky blue . Gemini-Chestnut. Cancer-Silver. Capricorn-Black . Leo-Gold . Aquarius-Grey. Virgo-Multi-colour . Pisces-Navy Blue. Mars-Red. Sun-Gold. Moon-Silver . Jupiter-Blue . Mercury-Iridescent . Saturn-Black . Venus-Green . B. Influences and Virtues (according to Tradition) :Colours bringing good luck, symbolic of virtue, are :White-Purity, truth, innocent pleasure . Pink-Morning light, timidity, amiability, welcome . Blue-Pure love, youth, illusions, moral electricity. Green-Hope, confidence . Red-Ardour, health, strength, heat . Purple-Intelligence, politeness, knowledge, tonic . Amaranth-Constancy in friendship. Faithfulness in love . Lilac-Freshness, charm, first love . Violet mixed with Green and Yellow-Triumph . Unlucky colours, bringing bad luck, denoting defects are :Black-Sorrow, mourning . Grey-Melancholy, neurasthenia . Orange-Lust, great heat. Yellow-Falseness, betrayal, avarice, ambition . 1 ' Subject to certain reservations . No doubt yellow is the colour of deception in love . But splendid qualities redeem this symbolism . And it is difficult to accept the curse attached to orange, which is but a reddish yellow .

LOW MAGIC Brown-Repentance, sorrow . Dead Leaf-Sorrows, ruin. Purple-Pride . IL White edged with Black-Death, tears.

357

VII

Modern Magic

We have given in the preceding pages, a collection, somewhat mixed perhaps, of old beliefs and magic acts . In the following we will try and give a survey of the remnant of Magic which modern Magicians have thought right to preserve . And the reader will not be astonished at what he will find, however surprising it may be, when he remembers that a part of this remnant has been examined by serious-minded men like Eliphas Ldvi, Gualta, Barlet, Saint-Yves, Papus, Peiladan, Piobb, Jagot, etc ., and on the other hand that many of these practices which seem so grotesque or diabolic, such as Magic Mirrors, the Casting of Spells, etc., can to-day be produced very scientifically and without the aid of dark infernal spirits . As we have said, it was by starting with hyperpsychical phenomena (which he himself calls hyperphysical) that Paul Jagot went back to the practices of Magic . We will follow him stage by stage, giving a short account of his labours, and leaving on one side everything that . relates to divination, already studied by Gualta, Barlet, Saint-Yves, Papus, Peladan, Piobb, Jagot, etc .2 Great psychical phenomena, he says, arise from the first principles of Magic . And he makes a list of the main ones among them, which either have already been described by us or will be found in our Third Part, that is to say :I. Exteriorisation of Sensitiveness (experiments by Joire, 3 by Colonel de Rochas, etc.). II . Exteriorisation of Motivity (numerous experiments by Darien, Maxwell, Richet, Rochas, Count Grammont, Baron Watteville, Sabatier, Victorien Sardou, Adolphe Brisson, Camille Flammarion, etc . See Third Part. This deals with phenomena of mediumship such as movements of things, auditions, mysterious shocks, etc .) ' Subject to certain reservations . Purple is merely an enhanced red . Briefly, we ought

not to put yellow and red with their various shades into this sorrowful list . In our opinion there is no justification for it . We have chosen P . Jagot's book as the most recent. But it would be advisable also to read the Treatise of Practical Magic by Papus (Chaeornae-publisher) . a Dr. Joire is the President of te Universal Society for Psychical Studies . He wrote Psychic and supernormal Phenomena, Neuro-Hypnology . See also The Mysteries of Hypnosis by G. de Duborn ; Modern Scientific Method of Magnetism, Hypnotism, Suggestion, by P . Jagot, and others .

358

THE OCCULT SCIENCES III . Metagnomy . We have spoken of this above. It is the perception of persons, of things, beyond the radius of the senses of the subject, and of past or future events. IV. Telepsychics. These are presentiments which have come true (see Third Part). V. Divided Personality. This is the extraordinary but tested phenomenon of bilocation (see Third Part), whereby a person projects his ego to a distance, his body remaining stationary . Secondly, a list of these to some extent miraculous possibilities having been made, P. Jagot describes, as we shall do later on, the constitution of Man according to Occult Science. This constitution, both in the Universe and in Man, is threefold, in the Cosmos physical, hyperphysical (astral plane, more subtle than matter) and spiritual (first and ruling cause of the other two elements), and in Man (the microcosm) is corporal (the anatomical body), astral (astral body, giving life to the physical organism, and of a subtle substance identical with that of the astral plane) and mental (the mental body is a conscious, intelligent and indestructible entity) . Starting with these twofold data we may conclude :That there exists between the Universe and Man a threefold relation owing to which Man is able to act by other than bodily means (as is believed by materialists who deny both the astral body, cosmic or human, and the spiritual world, ruler of the Universe, or in Man his immortal ego) . The Occultist (and consequently the Magician) looks upon the physical body merely as a temporary support of the astral and mental human being . The astral being directs our organic, emotional and intellectual activities, enters into and closely blends with the physical body, presides over the cellular life, the building and maintenance of the individual being, orders his vegetative life and, as the centre of the subconscious, relates sensations and impressions received by the senses . The mental being, still more subtle, enters into the astral and the physical being, gives consciousness and stimulates the brain ; it is the seat of thought, of will-power, of the psychic faculties ; it rules the complete individual. In one word, where the classic psychologist sees three centres in the same body-sensation, feeling, thought -the occultist sees three distinct principles . In order to explain this occult constitution of Man, Hector Durville has devised a very apt comparison . Imagine a large hole filled with stones. These stones represent matter and its various states . It is the physical state (either of the Cosmos or of Man) . But these stones leave larger or smaller interstices between them which you may fill up, with sand for instance . This sand represents the astral (astral plane or astral body). Finally even this sand can still let water pass

LOW MAGIC 359 between its grains . This water is the spiritual of the Cosmos, the mental in Man . This at once explains telepathy and clairvoyance, since the astral plane binds together all human beings, at whatever distance from each other they may be . The astral body has been variously termed fluid body by Dr. Baraduc, enormon by Hippocrates, perisprit by Allan Kardec, luminous body by Pythagoras, ethereal body by the Greeks, body glorious by the Church . This diversity of names make the unity of belief still more distinct . Let us remark in passing that all religions and all metaphysics have known this threefold aspect of man . So that we do not know which is to surprise us more, either materialistic Science which denies all this documentary evidence, or the Christian Church which forgets what it formerly believed . The following table is convincing :Egypt :-Khat (body), Ka (double or astral), Khou (intellect) . China :-Xuong (organic body), Khi (breath of life), Whun (will) . Persia :-Djan (body and life), Ferouer (substance), Akkho (eternal principle) . Greece :-Body, Shadow, Mind. India :-Rupa (physical body), Kama Roupa (body or desire), Atmat (mind). Israel :-Gouph (body), Nephesch and Ruach (soul), Neschamah (pure spirit). Primitive Christianity :-Corpus, Anima, Spiritus . The necessary relations will easily be made . The differences are mere shades . St . Thomas himself distinguished three kinds of soul . Some schools, however, go so far as to count five elements in man, and others seven . All they do is to subdivide the above mentioned three fundamental elements . For instance, in the case of divided personality, the physical body must continue to have an animator of its cells . Advanced Occultists call this animator the etheric double . There are supersensitives who see it in graveyards soon after the burial of the corpse from which it frees itself (to this are due many tales of ghosts) . It is this etheric double which is influenced by magnetisers to restore the health of their patients . So also the mental body presupposes a causal body which affects the moral or constitutional consciousness, some philosophers holding this to be different from the psychological consciousness . Thus we have five elements . Esoteric Buddhism suggests two more, corresponding to two states of the soul which are very rare but

360 THE OCCULT SCIENCES said to have been proved, that is, the Buddhistic body (the identification of the ego with the Universal Being) and the athmic body (or pure spirit, the perceptive centre of primal causes) . Stanislas de Guaita and many theosophists recognise this septenary . For each of our principles, concludes P . .Jagot (who confines himself to the ternary), we are therefore in relation with the three planes of the Universe-the plane of realities, the plane of virtualities and the plane of directions . With our physical senses we apprehend matter ; through the astral body we are bathed in a cosmic ocean (the astral plane) identical with our astral essence, and are thus in contact with our fellow-beings and with the forces, agents and entities whose interplay determines the genesis of facts ; through the mental body we are in touch with causes . This explains the power of Thought, producing invisible vibrating waves which try to translate themselves into realities . These forces become the conductors of elements which are analogous to them, and they put into motion the plan of virtualities where events are in preparation. Hence the creative force of Thought, proved by the photographs of Dr. Baraduc and Commandant Darget, who have succeeded in fixing on the sensitive plate the effort of the mental body .' Thoughts thus become real material things as well as forces. An Englishman, Richard Ingalese 2 goes so far as to assert that by addressing mentally, in a concrete form, a request to the Universal Consciousness (astral and mental plane) we can obtain from the latter the object thought of, because in some way we project the matrix of the .thing which we evoked . The whole of the remarkable passage of Paul Jagot as to the method of commanding our fate should be read, where he proves that a psychic who is awake and strong can do everything he wants to, 3 and that he has an influence not only on other persons, but also on events. The practice of this individual psychism is Personal Magic, which corresponds to the first two methods mentioned above by Pierre Piobb for the use of fluids. Side by side with this personal Magic we have Traditional Magic, which is much more complicated, and which is in the main the Magic of which we have spoken in our " Storehouse of Low Magic." We repeat that we attach no derogatory meaning to this expression, since P . Piobb also calls it High Magic . It is simply that we have kept the ' See his Transcendental Photography, where will be found what are called sign-manuals of the soul . See also Personal Magnetism, by Hector Durville . • See his History and Power of Thought . • Treatise of Occult Sciences and Practical Magic, page 54 et seq.

LOW MAGIC 361 latter term for Hermetic Philosophy, but we admit that the expression is incorrect, and explain it by the convenience of language . For the practice of this difficult Magic we require a material, a locality and very special gifts . The first thing required to be thoroughly known here is elementary Astrology ; a chapter at the beginning of this book deals with this, to which we refer the reader, so that he may be thoroughly familiar with the influence of each of the seven planets, as each one of them assists, to the exclusion of all others, in the different magical operations . Thus it is necessary to know, with the assistance of the almanacs of Raphael, the position of the various planets in the Zodiac and their aspect on each day of the year, especially the position and aspect of the Moon (beneficent when it is increasing, maleficent when it is decreasing), the influence dominating each day of the week (the Sun on Sunday, the Moon on Monday, etc .) and each hour of the day (see the table). The particular realm of each planet should also be remembered :The Sun-Influence favourable to acts relating to active vitality (knowledge, position, love, etc .) The Moon-Influence favourable to acts relating to vegetative activity (security, foreknowledge, journeys, etc .) Mars-Influence favourable to combativeness (domination, industry, surgery, etc.) Mercury-Influence favourable to adaptiveness (skill, commerce, medicine, diplomacy, etc .) Jupiter-Influence favourable to social position (the family, comfort, great opportunities, etc .) Venus-Influence favourable to physical perfection (harmony, charm, art, average luck.) Saturn--Influence favourable to long life, to abstract science (mines, treasures, hidden knowledge, etc .) In order to attract the influence of the entities presiding over the functions of the Cosmos and to capture the hyperphysical forces the following are used :1. Names, signs, figures, the writing of which exercises a special conductive power over the astral . 2, Substances from the three kingdoms, the properties of which harmonise with the influences . Mr. Jagot gives in this connection seven tables , which we reproduce here, and which show, starting at the top :1 These tables derive from the kabbalistic Astrology included in the Treatise of Practical Magic of Papua, already referred to .

362

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

THE OCCULT SCIENCES A synthetic design of the entities in touch with the planet and its place in the Zodiac. The general design of the vibratory tonality of the planet . The sign which raises the entity presiding over the beneficent acts of the planet. The sign which raises the entity presiding over the maleficent acts of the planet. A kabbalistic table of figures .

These signs and designs should be reproduced on metal or parchment as the case may be. Sun

Metal :-Gold . Colour :-Golden yellow . Minerals :-Amber, chrysolith, carbuncle, hyacinth, topaz . Plants :-Angelica, balsam, corn, cinnamon, cardamon, Baron, celandine, common cabbage, chrysanthemum, cyclamen, gentian, clove tree, heliotrope, laurel, lavender, lotus, marjoram, pimpernel, orange tree, barley, palm-tree, primula, buttercup, polygonium, rosemary, saffron, red sandalwood, sage, tansy, thyme . Animals :-Eagle, goat, ram, canary, condor, falcon, ibis, lion, parrot. Synthetic perfume :-Red sandalwood . Compound perfume :-Equal quantities of saffron, aloe wood, balm, laurel seed, cloves, myrrh, incense, musk, ambergris . According to tradition the above substances should be made into a paste before being reduced to powder, and they should be burnt, as is generally done, with incense or benzoin, and the blood of the animals mentioned above. Moon Metal :-Silver . Colour :-Silvery or white . Minerals :-Beryl, diamond, crystal, opal, mother-of-pearl. Plants :-Crab-apple, hay, camphor, cucumber, poppy, pumpkin, gourd, lettuce, melon, nenuphar, water-melon, purslane, rampion, beetroot, reed, white sandalwood, tamaris, limetree . Animals :-Frog, toad, crab, cat, osprey, bat, goose, swan, hare, rabbit, nightingale . Synthetic perfume :-Aloe . Compound perfume :--Equal quantities of seed of white poppy, storax, benzoin, powdered camphor, frog's head, bull's eye . The paste must be prepared with goose blood .

LOW MAGIC

363

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES Minerals :-Ruby, bloodstone, natural magnet, hematite, jasper, garnet . Plants :-Absinthe, acanthus, wild celery, agaric, garlic, wormwood, artichoke, arum, asparagus, burdock, basil, belladonna, briar, bryony, hemp, thistle, cibol, colocinth, bull's horn, cornel-tree, garden-cress, dog's-tongue, euphrasy, bean, fern, gorse, gladiola, woad, hore-hound, mint, mustard, nutmeg, onion, auricula, nettle, poppy, leek, peppertree, blackthorn, horse-radish, wallflower, rhubarb, veronica, vine . Animals :-Tiger, jaguar, panther, kite, cock, green woodpecker, horse, wolf, boar, dog, hawk, scorpion, spider . Synthetic perfume :-Briar. Compound perfume :-Equal quantities of spurge, cornel, ammonia, root of hellebore, powdered magnet, sulphur, gentian root . Make into a paste with the blood of one of the animals corresponding to Mars, or in default of this with blood of any butcher's animal . Mercury Metal :-Mercury. Colour :-Any shot neutral colour. Minerals :-Sardonyx, cornelian, agate, chalcedony . Plants :-Acacia, aniseed, beet, camomile, honeysuckle, chicory, couch-grass, Milan kale, filbert-tree, wild rose, endive, madder, juniper, marshmallow, matricaria, mercury, yarrow, millet, hazelnut, sorrel, cinquefoil, sarsaparilla, savory, scabious, elder, tea, clover, privet, valerian . Animals :-Cat (already given as belonging to the moon, but doubly owned), fox, magpie, swallow, monkey, linnet, weasel, thrush, bee, ant, common green lizard . Synthetic perfume :-Mastic resin. Compound perfume :-Equal quantities of mastic, incense, cloves, cinquefoil, powdered agate, to be made into a paste with the blood of one of the animals mentioned above, preferably a fox . Jupiter Metal :-Tin . Colour :-Blue . Minerals :-Sapphire, amethyst, turquoise, jasper, diamond with green or blue reflection . Plants :-Agrimony, aloe, amaranth, rest-harrow, daisy, beetroot, borage, bugloss, cedar, centaury, cherry tree, charm, red cabbage, quince, colchicum, sorb-apple, barberry, white fig tree, strawberry, germander, flax, mulberry, elm tree, poplar, peony, plane tree, plum tree, buckwheat, sesame, violet .

LOW MAGIC 365 Animals :-Buck, stag, giraffe, lark, partridge . Jupiterian animals are known by the peaceful, majestic, stately gait . Synthetic perfume :-Saffron .

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366

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Compound perfume :-Equal parts of seeds of ash, aloe wood, storax, benzoin, powdered azurite, powdered peacock feathers . Mix into a paste with the blood of a partridge . Venus Metal :-Copper . Colour :-Green. Minerals :-Emerald, light coral, sapphire with pink reflections . Plants :-Almond tree, box, cassia, celandine, honeysuckle, lemontree, coriander, watercress, spinach, fuchsia, clover, mistletoe, iris, hyacinth, house-leek, purple lilac, lily, cherry-pie, medlar, forget-menot, myrtle, caster daisy, pansy, periwinkle, plantain, apple tree, mignonette, rose, satyrion, wild thyme, colt's-foot, verbena . Animals :-Turtledove, nightingale, wood-pigeon, dove, pigeon, goat, sheep, sparrow, pheasant, butterflies . Synthetic perfume :-Musk. Compound perfume :-Equal proportions of musk, ambergris, aloe wood, red roses, powdered coral, to be made into a paste with the blood of one of the above animals, preferably a dove . Saturn Metal :-Lead. Colour :-Black. Minerals :-Obsidian, onyx, jet, diamond and black coral . Plants :-Aconite, agnus-castus, asphodel, cactus, hemlock, cocoa, cummin, cypress, datura, hellebore, spurge, fennel, black fig, male fern, stavesacre, lichen, mandragora, moss, parietary, lungwort, rue, soapwort, weeping willow, saxifrage, scrofulary, serpentine, tobacco plant. Animals :-Vulture, owl, toad (already mentioned, but doubly owned), bat, great-owl, little owl, mole . Synthetic perfume :-Sulphur . Compound perfume :-Equal parts of seed of black poppy, seed of henbane, root of mandragora, powdered magnetic iron, powdered myrrh, made into a paste with the blood of one of the above named animals, preferably a bat . The making of Talismans .-As has been seen above, in order to make a talisman it is necessary first of all to know what results are to be obtained, then, knowing this, to capture the required influence by the use of the signs, figures and substances which give the greatest intensity, remembering to take the relative times into account . And at once two observations suggest themselves :-

LOW MAGIC

367 1. The absolute uselessness of the fetishes, amulets, luck-bringers, etc ., sold in the shops. 2. The necessity, in order to make a talisman useful, that it shall be manufactured by its wearer or by a third party interested in the wearer, who shall make it for his use .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES How is it to be made ? By referring to the information given above, or by using a complete ritual such as that quoted by Piobb (Formulary of High Magic), by Papus, or by Jagot (Treatise of Occult Sciences, already referred to) . For instance, is it desired to make a solar talisman in order to capture harmonies favourable to spiritual, intellectual and material improvement, to artistic fame, to success with women, to a vivifying of the heart ? You must have a disc of yellow gold, some yellow silk, a new paintbrush, a carbuncle, portions of solar plants or animals, solar perfume and an incense burner . At the correct time (a Sunday, or when the Sun passes through the constellation of Leo in a good aspect, and in any case at the hour of the Sun) you withdraw into a room with yellow hangings, burn the appropriate perfume, engrave on one side of the disc the figured table of the Sun, on the other -side the appropriate signs (see the table of the Septenary), then enclose the disc together with the stone (carbuncle) and the suitable packets of plant and animal matter (see the table) in a bag of yellow material sewn with a thread of the same colour . The method is the same with the other planetary talismans . Evocations.-Evocation is the calling up of the entities which seem to direct the cosmic forces in the astral and other planes, or superior beings called elementals,' who animate the four fundamental elements (earth, water, air, fire) . But there is another not very thoroughly identified hierarchy of elementals which inhabit the Invisible . The evocation calls them up or conjures them, according to whether they are good or evil, and in various ways captures or commands them. But this is a difficult and sometimes dangerous proceeding, impossible for the weak or the supersensitive . It requires a very thorough knowledge of the complicated rites of which the Treatise of Mr . Jagot, and even the book of Papus, give but a summary, and which we shall not attempt to set out in this elementary Encyclopaedia . Modern Black Magic.-If we consider Magic with the knowledge of the possibility of phenomena founded on the occult principles above set forth, and at the same time with the wish of avoiding any extrascientific exaggeration, we shall arrive at a better understanding of the practices of modern witchcraft which have no connection whatever with demoniac agency . No doubt there still are sorcerers, but they may be looked upon as magicians of the second rank, and according to the very apt comparison of Papus, may be put into the same position as that occupied by a workman compared with his engineer working in the same class of industry. The engineer, trained in his College, has much more 1 See the very remarkable pages of Papus on Elementala in his Treatise of Practical Magic, page 401 et seq . Also see his book and the writings of Eliphas Levi on Evocations .

LOW MAGIC 369 theoretical knowledge and much less practical experience ; the workman has much more manual skill, but lacks technical knowledge . So it is in the case of the sorcerer compared with the magician, at any rate with the modern magician who is more a scientist of the psychical laboratory (for the ancient magician often combined an immense knowledge with a constant practice rendered easy by faith around him) . The sorcerer of to-day, the village sorcerer, the sorcerer of savage tribes, is above all an empirical experimenter who uses given occult methods without knowing their laws . But some sorcerers are honest people, who try by the exercise of their psychic gifts to relieve the sufferings of their neighbours ; they are healers, bonesetters, intuitives who have learnt certain secrets of Nature and understand simples (we mean by this wild medicinal plants) . Others, less honest, indiscriminately work good or evil for money, or to satisfy the passions of others or their own, here giving a good prescription, there casting an evil spell . They are the most numerous, for human nature, alas, consists mainly of people in whom both Good and Evil have their dwelling . Finally there are the frank scoundrels, who work only for hatred, destruction and death, those who tie knots, the jettatores, poisoners, who invent the worst spells . They are to be feared, and are, unfortunately, actually maleficent. The sorcerer generally begins as an odd youth, sickly, mocked by his comrades, bearing the triple sign-manual of Saturn, Mars and Mercury in bad aspect, sometimes with an additional sign-manual of the Moon, seeking solitude where his intuition increases, seeking also the company of some other sorcerer of the neighbourhood whose secret knowledge he tries to purchase from an obscure design to avenge himself on Fate by hidden methods of rule . Then the little sorcerer exerts himself, finds intuitively old formulae in books of spells, or manages to understand those which his teacher hands on to him, he is able more or less correctly to use magnetism, suggestion, ordinary magic . If at bottom he is honest, he will be content with this . If not, he will try to go farther, and eventually tries his hand at the raising of demons . The true magician, says Jagot, has a well trained will and possesses the four conditions of success :-clearness of the mental representation of the aim to be attained, continuity of such representation, complete concentration of mental energy and intensity of volition . The sorcerer, who is without this great discipline, tries to reach obsession by a stimulant, maintains it by a series of awkward and grotesque rites, manages to concentrate his attention by looking fixedly at certain objects for a long time, finally reaches exaltation by reciting with full faith formulae which he has learnt by heart . Thus, consciously or not, he gets into a vibratory condition which enables him to act .

370

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

But what acts can he perform 7 He is quite obviously able to magnetise various substances to an extent which entails good or evil results for human beings, animals, or the harvest, he can influence some people by tele-psychics, haunt a house by projecting his astral body, obsess, frighten, act by suggestion, cure ills, but also make them worse, cast spells . And weak and impressionable persons fall an easy prey to him, also excitable people in the periods of depression which invariably follow on outbursts of temper, also those who, bearing a grudge, and desiring with all their power calamities for their enemies, succeed in acting as continual conductors of evil influences . The sorcerer attracts, sustains and projects elementals and larva in order to disturb normal conditions . He may even become able, through his own powers, to bring about phenomena of mediumship (see Third Part) and to consolidate the exteriorisation of his double into a materialisation which may take a truly diabolical shape if his over-excited imagination so wills it . The sorcerer moves the astral plane which bathes not only humans, but all beings, even inorganic . Matter lives, and the atom evolves (we have spoken of gamahes) . If there is life in minerals, d fortiori there must be life in plants, and intelligent life in animals. " The power of the tamer over the wild beast," says Paul Jagot, " the animosity of the police dog against the criminal, the sagacity which dogs have shown in recognising, holding and denouncing the murderer of their master, their lugubrious howling if there is a corpse in the neighbourhood, the conductive thread of the homing pigeon, all these can be explained through the astral body of the animal ." It is because he acts on the astral plane that the sorcerer is able to kill domestic animals, to sterilise the harvest, to harm a man's health at a distance, to cause mental trouble, to cast spells, even to " cast the evil eye," so great is his power over the timid . We could not better close these- remarks on modern witchcraft and its possibilities than by quoting two cases recorded in the reports, quoting from Mr . Paul Jagot, who will forgive us for borrowing, in this part of our chapter, so much from his Treatise of Occult Sciences and Practical Magic, one of the most remarkable, clear and fascinating books on these matters which we have seen, and which we strongly recommend to our readers in order to complete their knowledge of the conceptions of Magic which we are compelled to condense in an encyclopaedia in which we have to deal with so many other matters . The first of these events was reported by Stanislas de Gualta, the second by Mirville . A man of the name of Hocque, a shepherd, was sentenced to the Galleys by the High Court of Pacy on the 2nd September, 1687, for

LOW MAGIC 371 having, as public report had it, cast a spell on cattle . Hocque in vain appealed against the sentence of the Bailiff, and whilst he was still in prison the suggestion was made that he should be given a companion of the name of Beatrix, who was no more and no less than what we to-day call a copper's nark . Beatrix succeeded in making Hocque talk, and the latter in fact confessed that he had buried a dose of poison in a stable, and that the epidemic would stop if the charm was destroyed . Beatrix makes a report of the conversation, and he is told again to make the culprit drink and to obtain from him the breaking of the spell. Which was done . Hocque fell into the trap, forgetting the dire magic law of the shock on the rebound of which we have already spoken and which operates the return of the current, deflected from its objective, to its starting point with redoubled force . And the sorcerer wrote a letter to ask a colleague in Burgundy to raise the curse. But as soon as the messenger had started, he returned to his senses ; he saw his error, became furious with the traitor and tried to strangle him . He was stopped in time, and meanwhile the sorcerer in Burgundy carried out his task. But as soon as he had burnt the poison, the colleague showed great sorrow at having done so, for he then learnt, no doubt by telepathy, since he did not know it before, that the author of the spell was in Paris, in prison, and that he would pay with his life for this broken magic . And in fact at the same hour Hocque was dying in remarkable convulsions and like one possessed . The documents proving this strange trial are in the Central Office of the High Court. The following deals with a haunted house . It dates back to 1851, and took place in Cideville, in the Seine-Inferieure . A shepherd of the name of Thorel (shepherds seem to be particularly adept at witchcraft) was accused by his master and teacher, a sorcerer like himself, and denounced by the priest of Cideville, of striking the latter by occult means to avenge himself . But the priest seems to have been fairly immune from such attacks, and in his turn he prosecuted Thorel before the Courts . The latter then attacked one of the pupils of the priest with such success that the presbytery was soon haunted ; the walls shook, unexplainable noises occurred, the furniture moved of itself, in short nothing was lacking . The authorities, the Mayor, the Judge, the physician, all certified the facts . Better still, the bewitched boy saw Thorel's double, and even this spectre attacked him to such an extent that the marks of the blows remained visible . A priest who was brought in as witness and was well versed in occult practices, knowing the dissolving action of a steel point on the coagulated fluid, took an appropriate tool and threw it in the direction of the spectre . Immediately a flame burst forth, smoke invaded the room, and a voice asked that this hyperpsychic duel should end . The priestly

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 372 victor requested that. the culprit should come and ask the forgiveness of his victim. And on the morrow, under the influence of this powerful suggestion, Thorel himself came to the presbytery . But this time he tried to strike the vicar of Cideville, who threatened him with his stick. The Justice of the Peace of Yerville was present . As previous to these proceedings Thorel had brought an action against the priest for damages, he was non-suited and ordered to pay the costs . The whole matter with the depositions and evidence is preserved in the judicial archives of Yerville . Here also we have a case of divided personality . This coming out of the astral may also explain the various stories of werewolves, as some very expert sorcerers were able to alter the shape of their double, and also the Sabbath, where the double of some initiate might well actually take the shape of the traditional Satan . But Gassendi suggests yet another possibility . One day he succeeded in obtaining from the sorcerer information as to the means by which he went to the Sabbath . The sorcerer took certain drugs, rubbed himself with a narcotic ointment and at once fell into a heavy sleep, on awaking from which he asked the physician, whom he thought he had taken with him, if he had thoroughly enjoyed himself amongst the devils, telling him of the scenes at which he was quite sure he had been present !

• of Witchcraft, when • with our• tales We were going to finish• here the remarkable volume of Ely Star, Mysteries of Beings, fell into our hands, and we cannot refrain from quoting the following facts vouched for by the author :The explorer Saint Pol Lias told him that one day, when he was on a mission in Kaffraria, he saw a negro who was going to be executed because he " made wood speak," in other words because he practised witchcraft . " Is it_ possible ? " asked Saint Pol, and asked for proof. " Give me your stick," said the negro, and taking it in his hand, he rubbed it, uttering at the same time barbaric and no doubt magical words, then gave it back, saying, " And now you may stick it in the earth and question it, it will answer you ." Whereupon the negro returned to his place amidst the soldiers and went to his death humming some war song . Saint Pol went off saddened and intrigued, first of all sceptical, then driven by curiosity he turned into a little oasis where, half an hour later, he tried the experiment . Having planted the stick in the earth, he asked " Spirit of the Wood, will you answer me ? " " Yes," uttered a thin and distant voice, which he at first took for an acoustic illusion.

LOW MAGIC 373 However, not afraid of being laughed at, as there was no one near him, he put two definite questions as to the time of arrival in port of a boat which he expected, and as to the presence of a certain person who ought to have been among the passengers . And the thin little voice gave him the information he wanted . " You may believe me if you like," concluded Saint Pol in telling the story to Ely Star, " but the details were exact ." " What do you think of it ? " " I think that I believe in everything, that I doubt of everything, and that I do not deny anything." " There speaks a wise man . And did the stick make further prophecies ? " " No, for by the time I questioned it again, the unfortunate sorcerer must have been executed .' How is this phenomenon to be explained ? Perhaps by supposing, as is suggested by Jagot, that the Kaffir sorcerer was able to exteriorise his double and even his voice whilst remaining in psychical contact with the explorer, thus following him into the oasis and from a distance replying to his questions . Another traveller, A.D., quoted by Ely Star, has told of the marvels worked by sorcerers of Dahomey and Madagascar, who are sometimes as powerful in magic as the Indian Fakirs . One of them (in Dahomey) one day told A .D . that he possessed a terrible curse, and as the traveller did not believe him, he said " Point out a tree to me, and I will kill it ." A .D. indicated a small mangrove tree . The sorcerer stretched out his left hand towards the shrub, concentrated his will, and to his amazement the traveller saw the leaves turn yellow and curl up ; at the end of a few minutes the tree was dead . It is by the opposite power that Fakirs have been seen to make plants germinate and grow in a few minutes, by placing their hands on them. Father Huc has brought similar tales back from Thibet . He was walking with a bonze when the latter, listening suddenly, told him that he was being called to a Convent far enough away for the journey there and back to take several days . " Do not worry, however," said the Bonze, " I shall be back here presently, or at least before sunset." And as the Jesuit appeared surprised, the Bonze continued " It is not with my visible body that I shall go yonder, but with my astral body." " But since you have the power, why do you not simply send your spirit there ? " " Because it is my real presence that is needed there, for a ceremony ."

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Back in his cell, the Hindu priest made his ablutions, recited his mantrams, then lay down on a mat where he lost consciousness . And whilst his body, stiff in a cataleptic trance, remained stretched out, his double made the journey, going like an arrow to the place where he was expected, and returning less than two hours later . One of the most astounding Hindu magicians whom Europe knew, thanks to Louis Jacolliot, who brought back from India a volume of the most amazing tales ever heard, was Covindaswamy, of whom a wealthy American relates the following :Whilst living at Lahore (the ancient Aagala) the American called Covindaswamy to his hotel to amuse his guests at a big reception . " What new thing are you going to show us to-night," he asked . " Let me have that child," said the Fakir, pointing to a baby of two. He placed the child on some cushions, squatted down in a corner of the room and, covering himself with a shawl, remained a long time without moving . Suddenly the baby got up, dropped its rattle, looked quietly at the assembled guests, cleared its throat, and proceeded to give in absolutely correct language an amazing lecture on one of the most abstruse problems of transcendental philosophy . Then, bowing, it gravely sat down again . The mother, weeping with emotion, went towards the child, which picked up its rattle and resumed its natural expression. Meanwhile the Fakir rose and slowly returned to his place near the host. We do not think that we have here a simple instance of ventriloquism. By a mighty effort the magician had undoubtedly filled the child with his own will and his own mind . In 1898, it having been decided to carry out some public works in a certain town in India, a small pagoda had to be demolished . The workmen having found a subterranean crypt, the managing engineer found a sarcophagus and called a bonze to open it, thinking it might contain a mummy. " No," said the priest, after having examined it, " That is merely a sleeping man ." " Impossible ! " said the engineer . " Yes," maintained the bonze . " In certain conditions it was possible for our people of old to be buried without dying, and having duly prepared and purified themselves, they could resist decomposition . You will see the proof of what I say." Some days later the Sacred Council of a Lamaist Convent near by met solemnly and carried out the rites necessary to awaken the sleeping man . They succeeded after about twelve hours of labour and prayers, the presiding priest having massaged the sternum and the forehead of the supposed mummy who at last arose, and a week

374

LOW MAGIC 375 later was going about like any other person . He had slept for twentytwo centuries (this was proved by an examination of the papyrus found with him). We leave it to the reader to make what he likes of this fantastic tale which is crowned by an epilogue still more fabulous :-Bored by his surroundings, the ancient Sleeper said, at the end of two years, that he wanted to go away . He called a meeting of the bonzes, clothed himself in a white lambskin, girded himself with a rope, pronounced his spells, and sharply threw the end of the cord into the air ; the rope became taut as if pulled by invisible hands and raised the fakir who ascended mysteriously and disappeared-like Elijah, and like Christ. Since we are speaking of Lamaist Convents, let us refer to the recent book of Ossendowski, " Beasts, Men and Gods," which has been much attacked as being a skilful mixture of facts (the author has actually been in Mongolia), travellers' tales and fancy . This novel has been compared (in particular by Mr . Borie in an article in the Mercure de France) with the tales of Father Hue of which we have just spoken, and who visited Thibet from 1844 to 1846 . We will therefore quote the following very curious tale :A lama had cut himself open, taken out his entrails and placed them in front of him, and then had returned to his former condition . However horrible and disgusting this sight may be, it is none the less very common in the Lamaist Convents of Tartary. The Bokte who is about " to show forth his power " as the Mongolians say, prepares himself for this appalling deed by long days of fasting and prayer . During this time he must abstain from all communication with other men and keep the most absolute silence . When the appointed day comes, the vast multitude of pilgrims meets in the great courtyard of the Convent, and an altar is erected before the door of the temple . At last the Bokte appears. He advances solemnly amidst the acclamations of the crowd, sits down on the altar, and takes from his belt a large knife which he places on his knees . At his feet numerous lamas sitting in a circle, begin the terrible invocations of this horrible ceremony . As the prayers proceed the Bokte is seen to shake in all his limbs, and gradually to fall into frantic convulsions . The lamas soon lose all restraint their voices get louder, their chants become disordered, and finally the saying of prayers gives way to screams and howling . Then the Bokte suddenly throws off the scarf which covers him, takes off his vest, grasps the sacred knife and cuts himself open . Whilst the blood is flowing, the multitude prostrates itself before the ghastly sight, and the frenzied Bokte is questioned as to hidden things and future events . His replies are looked upon as oracles .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES When the devout curiosity of the numerous pilgrims has been satisfied, the lamas return with calm and solemnity to the recital of their prayers . The Bokte collects with his right hand some of the blood of his wound, breathes on it three times and throws it in the air with a great shout. He rapidly passes his hand over his wound, and everything returns to its former state without the least trace remaining of this diabolic operation, except perhaps an extreme lassitude . 376

VIII

Little Supplementary Lexicon of Magic It being, as we have said above, impossible for us within the restricted scope of this Encyclopedia to go lengthily into detail as to everything concerning magic science, our readers may be grateful to us for giving them briefly various names and information for which we have been unable previously to find a place . We give them in alphabetical order. A A .-Letter of bad omen amongst the Greeks . With it the Magicians began the threats made in the name of the Gods. Abans.-Spirits of the iron mines (Persia) . Abizendegani .-Fountain of water which makes immortal (East) . Its Western equivalent-the fountain of Youth . Abracadabra.-Kabbalistic word of healing which was worn round the neck engraved on a disc on which the letters forming this word were placed on the points of a magic triangle . Abraxas.-Magic word the seven letters of which make the number 365. In Persian it denotes God. Acham .-The Demon of Thursday . Acqua Toffana.-Subtle poison invented of Toffana of Palermo who also made acquata (with probably a basis of arsenic) . Adytum.- Sacred spot in the temples, whence the oracles came . Agathomedon .-Familiar spirit of the Greeks who drank a glass of wine in his honour after meals . Agrippa of ti-ittesheim .-Famous German occult chemist and physician (1486-1535) . Agyrtes .-Priest of Cybele who cast horoscopes. , Akasa.-In esoteric Buddhism this word indicates the organic electricity of stars and human beings . Akhim.--City of Great Magicians in the Thebaid .

377 LOW MAGIC Albumazar.-Astrologer of the 9th century. Alleur .-Spirit or ghost of ruins (Normandy) . Alrinach .--Demon of Shipwrecks . Alyssus .-Fountain in Arcadia which cured madness . Alocer.-Demon in Astrology . Alminga.-Water plant of the Amazon with which the Indians used to rub their virile member so as to develop it, calling the while on the Gods of fertility . Amphiaraus .-The most famous soothsayer of old Greece . Any.-The presiding Demon of Hell . Anamalech .-The Demon of bad news . Andras.--The Demon of discord. Andriagne .-Griffon believed to be ridden by magicians . Angat.--Name of the Devil in Madagascar . The Angatos are ghosts. Annachiel .-The Spirit of Sagittarius . Anneberg.-The German Demon of Mines. Annocchiatura .-Charm by the eyes or by words, the mysterious power of which brings the opposite of the wish (Corsica) . Aour .-Hebrew name for well balanced astral light . The Apone.-Healing fountain in the neighbourhood of Padua . dwelling place of the oracle Geryon . Apophrados .-Unlucky days among the Greeks . Apotelesmatic.-Another mediaeval name for Astrology . Aquiel.-The Demon of Sunday . Arachula.-Evil spirit of the Air (in China near Siberia) . Ardad.-A Demon which led travellers astray (East) . Ahriman.-The Spirit of Evil (Persia) . Arma.-Breton fairy . Arnuphis.-Great Egyptian sorcerer . Asaphins .-Oniromancers in Chaldea . Ascaroth .-The Demon of spies and informers . Asmodeus.-Devil (Hebrew) . Asmodeus is said to have tempted Eve. Asmodel.--The Spirit of the sign of Taurus . Aspiol.-A kind of evil gnome or spirit . Asrofil .-The Angel who will announce the Last Judgment (Islam) . Astaroth.-One of the Chief Devils . Astarte is its female . Auguraculum .-Place where the sacred hens were kept (Rome) . Aulne.-Evil Spirit (Germany) . Avernus .-Pestilential bog at Baiae, said to be the entrance to hell. Azael .-One of the first angels to rebel . He is said to be chained up until the Last Judgment (Rabbinical legends) .

378

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Azariel.-The angel of the waters of the Earth, invoked by fishermen (Talmud) . Angels (Jewish) .-Anael, Gabriel, Samael, Michael, Sachiel, Raphael and Camel . Animals (impure) .-Among the Jews, grass-eating animals which do not chew the cud, rabbits and all rodents, pigs, aquatic animals, excepting fishes, flesh-eating birds and water-birds, the ostrich, the bat, the monkey, the lizard and all saurians, batrachians and snakes. Aziluth.-The Kabbalistic name for the Universe . B

Baal.-One of the Great Demons (Chaldea) .

Bad.-The Spirit of Tempests (Persia) . Bagh .-Magic knot preventing the consummation of marriage (Islam) . Bahaman.-The Spirit of Domestic Animals (Persia) . Bali.-The King of Hell (India) . Banschi.-White lady, Queen of Elves . Banshee.-Family Spirit (Scotland) . Barbiel.-The Spirit of the sign of Scorpio . Barcheel .-The Spirit of the sign of Pisces . Basilisk .-Serpent (born of an egg laid by a toad) whose look killed . Bechard.-The Demon of Tempests . Bechet.-The Demon of Friday. Behemoth.-The Demon of Animal Strength (Hebrew) . Belial.--Demon of the Sidonians . Beelzebub .-One of the Princes of Hell . Biergen-Trold.-Spirits of the Woods and Mountains (Faroe Islands) . Bilis .-Madagascan Demon which stops the rice ripening . Bitabas .-Sudan Sorcerer. Bithia .-Scythian Witch who bewitched or killed with a look . Bodilis.-Breton Fountain of Virginity. Bogle.-Scotch imp. Bohemians (or Romes or Gypsies) .-According to Papus, low caste Hindus (artisans) who emigrated in mass to Europe . Bohimum.-Spirit of Evil (Armenia.). Broceliande .-Enchanted Forest in Brittany (Finisterre) where Merlin lives. Brocken.-General meeting place of German Witches (in the Harz Mountains) . Bucon.-The Demon of Hatred . Byleth.-One of the Kings of Hell . Bassantin .-Scotch Astrologer (16th century) .

LOW MAGIC Berson.-Seer at the Court of Henry III of France . Bonati.-Florentine Astrologer (13th century) . Braccesco .-Italian Alchemist (16th century) . Bragadini .-Italian Alchemist (16th century) .

379

C Cacomedon.-Evil Spirit . Name given by some Astrologers to the twelfth House . Caipora .-Gigantic Spirit of the Forests of Brazil . Caiporism belongs to bad luck . Calchas .-Celebrated soothsayer of Antiquity. Caliban .-Evil spirit. Canidia .-Famous sorcerers who cast spells by means of wax dolls . Caous .-Evil spirits of caves (Caucasus) . Cacoux.-The name of certain malignant ropemakers (Brittany) . Carmenta .-Italian Pythoness . Chasdins.-Name of Chaldean Sorcerer-Astrologers . Cheitan.-Arab Demon born of smoke . Chikk .-Evil Spirit (Arab legends) . Cocles .-Chiromancer of the 16th century . Couril.-Dwarf spirit with webbed feet which haunts Druidic stones (Brittany, Ireland) . Couropira .-Lame dwarf in Brazilian legends . Craeteis .-The Goddess of sorcerers and enchanters . Cuma.-Old town in Italy celebrated for the grotto where the Sibyl of the same name lived . D Demiurg .-According to the Gnosis, the Divine Love to which God has entrusted the management of the World . Demonology .-The Science of the influence and the nature of Demons . Demons (Hebrew) .-Beelzebub, Samael, Pythin, Asmodeus, Belial, Lucifer and Satan . Demophila. The seventh Sibyl of Cumae, the one who brought the Sibylline books of the Elder Tarquinus . Dir.-Persian Demon. Djinn.-A kind of demon or hobgoblin born of flame (East) . Drac .-Familiar spirit, benignant fairy . Dragon (red) .-Book of witchcraft of the 16th century dealing with the art of evoking spirits, making the dead speak, finding hidden treasures, etc . Drolls .-Northern Demons giving warnings of danger . Dyonito dal Bergo .-Italian Astrologer (13th century) .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES E

Elves.-Spirits of Northern Mythology . Ellivane .-Wandering spirit of Scotch legend . Eon .-Intermediary between Man and God, according to some Occultists . Erlking.-The Spirit of Oaks (Germany) . Errohani .-The Magic interpretation of the Koran . Etraphill .-One of the Moslem angels entrusted with the trumpet of the Last Judgment . F Farfadets .-Hobgoblins in Eastern and Scottish legend (not mischievous) . Fires of St . John.-Joy fires to which various superstitions are attached . The night of St . John (24th June) is the shortest and is one of the magic dates of the year . Young girls believed that if on that night they danced nine times round a fire they would soon be married . Sorcerers thought that the night was favourable to the picking of the herbs used in their spells, etc . Flaga .Wicked fairy in Scandinavian legend . Fioraventi .-Alchemist of the 16th century . G

Gabriel.-Spirit of Aquarius . Gandreid .-Irish Magic (the power of witches of riding through the air on horse ribs) . Ganga.-Soudanese Magic . Gauric.-The imp of Megaliths (Brittany) . Geber .-Persian Prince, Sabean author of numerous occult works and chief of the magicians of his time . Gematry .-In the Kabbala, the study of transpositions . Genethliacs.-Another name for Astrologers . Gengues.-Japanese Soothsayers . Ghaddar.-Arab demon (Upper Egypt) . Ghoul .-The Demon of Graveyards (Arabia) . Goblins .-Spirits of Ships (Brittany) . Gonin .-Old French name for jugglers, snake-charmers, etc . Goule.-Woman dedicated to the evil spirits. Gratoulet .-Sorcerer learning to " tie the knot ." Gri-gri.-African Talisman. The most efficacious is a bag containing a piece of the dried navel-string of the wearer. Guaron.-Another name for the sorcerers of the Middle-Ages .

LOW MAGIC 381 H Hamaliel .-The Spirit of the sign of Virgo . Hanael .-The Spirit of the sign of Capricorn . Haza.-A Scottish Druidess . Hexe.-Witch of the North of Europe . Holda.-A kind of Sabbath (Gaul) . Horei.-Evil Spirit (West Africa) . Huard.-Demon who teases travellers (Brittany) . Hadikin.-Familiar spirit (Anglo-Saxon legend) . Hypophete.-Ancient priest receiving and communicating oracles . I Ignis fatuus.-Burning gases arising from certain kinds of soil (containing hydrogen and phosphorus) which our fathers took for spirits or for the souls of the dead . Incubus.-Male spirit or demon taking a body for the purpose of meeting a woman . Inescation.-Occult medical process (the transfer of an ill from a man to an animal) . Insemination.-Occult transfer of a human ill into the earth . Irroration.-Magic healing (by watering plants with the discharge of the patient) . Ithyphallus .-Phallus-shaped amulet . Iwange.-Sorcerer in the Moluccas . I ynge.-Kind of love potion . J Jakis.-Malignant spirits of the air causing illness (Japan) . Jamambux.Japanese Fanatics claiming to communicate with the devil . Jukle.-Spirits of the air (Lapland) . Juripary.-Spirit of Evil (Brazil) . K

Kaho.-A kind of curse (Marquesas Isles) .

Kamlat.-Evocation of the Devil by means of a magic drum (Tartars of Siberia) . Kaybora.-Spirit of Woods (America) . Kelpie .-Spirit of Rivers (Scotland) . Kleudde.-Imp (Flanders) . Kobold.-Imp (Ireland) . Koltkis .-Nocturnal spirit (Slavonic legend) . Korrigan. :Dwarf spirit of Druid monuments .

382

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Koughas.-Malignant spirit (Kamtchatka) . Koupai .-Evil spirit (Peru) . Kumacanga.-Name for the werewolf in Brazil . Kupai.-Name of the Devil (Florida and Peru) . Kircher.-Famous German Jesuit Scientist said to have been a sorcerer (17th century) . L Ledoux (Miss).-Famous cartomancer (19th century) . Laica.-Good fairy (Peru) . Lamia .-Fabulous spectre with woman's head and serpent's body . Lan.ithro .-Demon of the air (Moluccas) . Lase .-Benignant spirit (Thibet). Lechies.-Female rustic spirits (Slavonic mythology) . Leviathan.-One of the Chief Demons . Lilith.-Phantom of a cruel beautiful woman (Jewish belief) . Ludlam .-Benign fairy (England) . Laensberg.-Astrologer of Liege (17th century) . M Magares.-Sorcerers skilled in " tying the knot " (Mingrelia) . Malchichel .-The spirit of the sign of Ram . Manifest Art.-King of enclyclopwdia of kabbalistic signs . Also part of the Kabbala dealing with the science in numbers. Manitou .-Indian Fetish (North America) . Mantras.-Sanscrit magical formulae . Maridh.-Arab demon. Mastijdhal.-One of the Princes of Darkness . Maty-Tapire.-Lame dwarf of Indian legend . Mecasphin.-Chaldean sorcerer . Medrashim .-Kabbalistic books . Meerman.-Spirit of Water, announcing Tempests (Baltic countries) . Melusine .-Fairy of Poitou (Family spirit of Lusignan) . Meming.-Satyr . (Scandinavian Mythology) . Miligma.-Offering to the infernal deities (Greece) . Muhazimim .-Name for possessed persons (Africa) . Muriel.-Spirit of the sign of Cancer. Mystagogue.-Initiator into Mysteries . Manto.-Famous pythoness in Thebes. N

Nakarmkir .-The . Spirit of Repentance (Islam) . Narac .-Hell (India) .

LOW MAGIC Nassib.-The Law of Destiny (Turkey) . Nemas.-Malignant spirit (Arabia). Nidde.-Song of malediction (Scandinavia) . Nirvana.-Buddhistic word denoting the state of the individual losing itself in Nothingness. Nixes and Nixes .-Spirits of water (Germany) . Nornes .-Virgins of Time (Germany) . Notaria .-In the Kabbala, the study of signs . Nostradamus.-French Astrologer (1503-1566) . 0 Oberon.-The King of the spirits of the air (England) . Obi.-Negro sorcerer . Ombiache .-Madagascar sorcerer. Ombrophore.-Soothsayer foretelling rain. Ornen.-The name of the omen given by the augurs . Orcavelle.-Famous sorceress of romance. Orias.-Spirit of soothsayers and astrologers . Ormuz.-The Principle of Good, opposed to Ahriman (Persia) . Orcus .-Old name for Hell. Ouikka.-Spirit of Evil (Esquimaux) . Ouran.-Magician (East Indies) . Ourisk.-Imp of Scottish legend. Obereit.-Swiss Alchemist (18th century) . Orenne .-Astrologer (14th century). P Pageh.-Indian sorcerer in Brazil. Pandemonium .-Meeting of Devils . The whole of the Devils . Paneros.-Fabulous stone relieving barren women . Patala.-Name of the Indian Hell. Peri .-Female good spirit (Persia) . Perlimpinpin (powder of).-Made of the ashes of cats, toads, lizards and aspics burnt together . Was used in various " Miracles ." Pctpayaton.-Evil spirit of the air (Siam) . Phylactery .-Amulet made of strips of parchment (Jewish) . Phyteum.-Kind of thistle used in some potions . Pilla-Karras.-Malabar sorcerer protector of sharks . Piripis.-Peruvian talisman made of magic plants . Polyglossos.-Prophetic oak . Posoera .-Class of witches . Pousti-Reducing plant used by Fakirs .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Praepates.-Favourable augurs (Roman) . Psychagogy.-Rites for pacifying the Shades . Psychurgy.-The science of the esoteric principles presiding over birth and death, that is to say the transformations of the soul . Psylle .-Snake-charmer. Q Quirim.-Magic stone which, placed on the forehead of a sleeper, will make him tell what is in his mind . R

Ranail.-Madagascan spirit . Rhombus.-Group of sorcerers dancing at the Sabbath . Runes.-Magic letters used in spells (North of Europe) . Ruggieri.-Florentine Astrologer (16th century) . S Saalah.-Demon enticing persons into the woods for the purpose of tormenting them (Arab legend) . Sabeism.-Original worship of the stars . Sacy-Perere.-Cheerful spirit of the Brazilian woods . Saga, Sagane.-Mediaeval names for witches. Samael.-Spirit of punishments and misfortunes (Persia) . Salutadores .-Healing sorcerers (Spain). Sanave.-Madagascar amulet . Schaman.-Sorcerer in Lapland . Scopelism.-Curse attached to stones thrown into a field or garden . Senes .-Druidesses of the Island of Sein who calmed the Winds . Sepher Jesirah.-One of the classic books of the Kabbala . Sikidy.-Madagascar Astrologer. Skou.-Spirit of the Woods and Mountains (Faroe Isles) Soled.-Spirit of the Mountains (Alpine legend) . Sotray.-Imp called Sotret in Lorraine . Spagyria .-Medical part of Alchemy relating to the composition and decomposition of bodies . Spir.-Ancient name given to Spirits (hence Spiritism) . Spirits (lower) .-These were the gnomes (earth), the undines (water), the imps (air), the salamanders (fire) . Stryge.-Vampire or spectre which ate living beings . Sulfs.-Name of Sylphs in Gaul (female Sylphid) . Sylphina .-Land of the- Sylphs (England, Ireland) . Symmyst.-Person initiated into the Mysteries . Stadius .-Chiromancer of the time of Henri III of France .

LOW MAGIC Sto ler .-German Astrologer (15th century) . Swastika .-Buddhist symbol of the Sun, of Light.

885

T Taboo .-Objects which may not be touched by any one (New Guinea) . Hence the expression, to be taboo. Taconius .-Name of the Fates in Islam. Taingairi .-Spirits of the air among the Kalmuks . Talamasc .-Effigy of the Devil exhibited at certain festivals . Talapoin .-Priest and Magician in Laos . Talys.-Talisman made of a tiger's tooth (India) . Tamuz .-Name for Hell among the Kalmuks . Taribot .-Dwarf sorcerer (Madagascar) . Tarni .-Exorcising formula (Kalmuk) . Telet .-Purification rite among the initiates . Tenebrion.-Spirit of Darkness . Teraphim.-Automaton's head which foretold the future (Jewish) . Termagaut.-Mediaeval idol. Tervils .-Evil and prophetic demons (Norway) . Teusapoulier .-Malignant spirit inhabiting animals (Brittany) . Themury.-Id the Kabbala, the study of commutations and combinations. Tibalany .-Spectre appearing in trees (Philippines) . Toqui.-Sorcerer (Araucania). Torngarsuk .-Greenland spirit . Totem.-Guardian spirit (North America) . Trees (sacred) .-The Acacia in Egypt, the Banian in India, the Birch in Kamtchatka, the Oak among the Celts . Trollen .-Good spirit in Norwegian legend . Trout which spins.-Lake trout belonging to Gillet-Soulard who was accused of sorcery and burnt in 1466 . Tyre .-Ball of down used in Magic in Lapland . Tiresias .-Noted soothsayer of Antiquity. U Udaci .-Kind of Fakir. Uphir.-Chemist demon attending to the toilet of Beelzebub . Utesitura .-Irish magic establishing communication at night with evil spirits . V Vaudoisia.-Meeting of Sorcerers (Pays de Vaud, Switzerland) . Verchel.-Spirit of the sign of Leo .

386

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Verdelet.-Demon who carried the Witches to the Sabbath. Vila.-Spirit of Dalmatian legend . Vitium .-First word of evil omens . Verdun .-French sorcerer (16th century) . Villiers (Florent de) .-Famous astrologer (15th century) . W

Wairon.-Old name for werewolf. Watipa.-Malignant spirit of the shore of the Orinoco. Willis.-White spectres of German legend representing the souls of betrothed women who died before marriage.

Yara.-Kind of siren in Brazil .

Y

Z Zakum.-Tree in the Mohammedan Hell whose fruits are devil's heads . Zagam .-Winged demon with bull's head . Zahuris.-Spanish soothsayers who discover water and hidden treasures (see Magic Rod) . Zohar.-One of the fundamental books of the Kabbala . Zuriel .-Spirit of the sign of Libra .

LOW MAGIC

THE FIFTEENTH PLATE OF THE MUTUS LIBEB . This represents the apotheosis of Saturn victor over Jupiter, the solarisation of the base metal through light and turning into Gold .

387

CHAPTER III ALCHEMY THIS chapter will be relatively short .

Not that Alchemy, which we classify between Low Magic and High Magic, is not of enormous interest, especially since the attempts at bringing it up to date made by Poisson, Tiffereau and especially by Jollivet-Castelot, the general secretary of the Alchemist Association of France, the editor of the review called Hyperchemistry, and the author of numerous books on the subject . Not that it does not contain most interesting information, for we must not forget that it formed part of Hermetism and was called the Great Art. But Alchemy requires very abstruse studies which are outside the scope of our popular Encyclopaedia . In order to deal with it appropriately we should have to do so very thoroughly, and that would entail a course of study of very advanced science of interest to only a few who are already prepared for it by preliminary work . If these latter wish to go into the matter thoroughly, they would do well to study the special books, some of which are mentioned in the note at the foot . 1 Here we will confine ourselves to saying what is Alchemy, stating its fundamental ideas and summing up its ancient and modern claims . In the preface which Dr . Encausse (Papus) wrote for How to become an Alchemist by Jollivet-Castelot, the former first of all shows that it is a mistake to believe that Alchemy is but the stammer of Chemistry . In olden times men in fact studied nature in its body, its life and its spirit. The study of the Body taught the laws of universal organisaIn particular : Hyzoloism, Alchemy and the Unitarian Chemists, Alchemy, How to become an Alchemist, etc ., to which may be added, Theories and Symbols of the Alchemists, and the five Treatises on Alchemy b y A. Poisson : the Methodical Treatise of Occult Science of Papus ; The Origins Alchemy by Berthelot ; Gold and the Transmutation of Metals by Tiffereau ; Introduction to Unitarian Unitarian Chemistry by A . Strindberg ; Alchemy and the Alchemists by L. Figuier ; the works of Peladan, Eliphas Levi and others also contain valuable information on this subject . In addition there is a Very remarkable collection of plates called the Mutus Liber (that is to say the Dumb Book, the Book of Pictures without Words) which is very old and over which many a Hermetic philosopher has broken his head, which sums up the Great Task in fifteen engravings . We have seen a magnificent copy of this gem, published by Emile Nourry, on Japanese paper, with an explanation signed Magophon . This shows in pictures the progress of the alchemist doctrine which Eyrenee Philarete had already described in his Open Entrance to the Close Palace of the King . We merely draw attention to this emblematic work which starts with the Dream and the Egg whence issues Secret Science, and ends with the apotheosis of Saturn or the solarisation of the base metal, that is to say its transmutation into Gold .

388

ALCHEMY 389 tion ; the study of Life enabled the laws of transformation (including for instance the law of transmutation of metals) to be grasped ; the study of the Spirit led to the power of creation. Now from the 15th and 16th centuries onward official science confined itself to the study of the Body, and left the study of Life and of the Spirit to the so-called Occult Sciences . And Alchemy is the study of these metaphysics forgotten and despised by Chemistry . In reality the three steps of knowledge are :-Chemistry (for the beginner), Alchemy (for the initiate), Hermetic Philosophy (the Supreme Science) . The main students of Alchemy were :-Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Raymond Lullius and Arnauld de Villeneuve in the 13th century, Nicholas Flamel and Basil Valentine in the 14th and 15th, Paracelsus in the 16th, Van Helmont and Helvetius in the 17th, Pernety in the 18th, Cambriel, Louis Lucas, Albert Poisson, Papus, Marc Haven, Strindberg, Tiffereau, Emmens, Barlet, Stanislas de Guaita and Paul Sedir in the 19th. At the present day Mr . Jollivet-Castelot is its most distinguished representative . The Church, so severe with Sorcerers, was less so with Alchemists and secretly protected them . Several Popes studied the subject, especially Sylvester II, Honorius III, Urban V, Leo III (the author of the Enchiridion) ; also various Hermetist Bishops, such as Denis the Areopagite, Saint Cesaire, Bishop of Arles, Saint Malachi, Bishop of Annagh, Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, Cardinal Ailly, Chancellor of the University of France, Cardinal Cusa, Bishop of Caserti, etc . : further the Jesuits Kircher and Postel, the Benedictine Trithemus, Monarchs such as Alphonso X, King of Spain, Charles V, King of France, Rudolph II, German Emperor, vast numbers of scientists in addition to the five or six mentioned above, such as Kelloe, Lazarellas, Palinginesis, Michael Scott, Petrus de Zalento, etc ., the Arabs Avincenna, Hamel, Artephius and very many others . Alchemists acknowledge the * unity of matter, and in this respect are in agreement with the most eminent of official scientists . They base their atomic system on Ether, the universal fluid (the astral light of the Kabbala), and on the principle of evolution . According to them matter is composed of molecules divided into infinitesimal particles, called atoms, which again are but one degree removed from Ether ; hence matter is compact energy which in the last resort is able to dissolve itself into free energy, into force . 1 In truth for the Alchemist energy and matter are but one and the same thing which in short is Substance, in the philosophical meaning of the word . 1 For all phenomena are movement .

390

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Thus Substance is All, is One, the Principle, the Absolute . And this One is divided into three :-Intelligence (or force), Energy, Matter . The Ether contains all the etherial vortices (atomic, cyclonic, electric collections of particles) and is endowed with evolution . All bodies are made of atoms identical but variously grouped, all are polymetrical modifications of the same element . It is therefore not surprising that Alchemists should claim that theoretically (and practically, say some of them) it is possible to make gold, that is to extract from other chemical bodies certain atoms and so to group these latter that they shall-in fact constitute gold . It would be just as easy artificially to make Iron, Sulphur or Lead, by arriving at the grouping of the atoms of which they are naturally composed.

The Kabbala also teaches a unitarian doctrine . Its data are adapted to the three planes of Nature (mental, astral, material) . Hermetism therefore gives its keys kabbalistically . The Alchemisteven in modern days-is always a priest who bases his physical or moral work on the Primordial Genesis which is none other than Taroc . Taroc and Kabbala are therefore synonymous. And the Alchemist sees a fatidic connection between the Great-Work and the astral influences, kabbalistic geometry and numbers . These connections are subtle. We do not go into them here as we do not wish to complicate our subject matter . Neither shall we deal with the discipline which . according to JollivetCastelot, the Alchemist must undergo and which he extracts from the interpretation of leaves 8 to 14 of the Taroc, just as he extracts the principles of Alchemy from its first seven leaves and its practice from leaves 15 to 22 . Thus the whole cycle of the major arcana of the Taroc (the first 22, there being 78 in all ) corresponds to the Science of Alchemy . This is called the Alchemical Taroc . So also it would take too long to follow him in his remarks on the Philosopher's Stone, the Universal Panacea and Palingenesis which constituted and still constitute the three fundamental researches of Alchemy . We will confine ourselves to saying that Alchemy and occult Therapeutics are two sister-branches of the same science-Hermetism . The Hermetist studied transmutation as well as the panacea whose object was healing by acting on the astral, that is to say on the initial cause of the ill ; and looked at in this light the word panacea loses its absurd meaning of a remedy for all ills ; the hermetist did in fact search for a drug sufficiently powerful to restore the circulation, the vital balance, and thus to act beneficently on the whole organism ; this may be a chimera, but it is not nonsense .

391 ALCHEMY Besides is the Electro-Homreopathy of some modern physicians so different ? And what is Metallotherapy ? We quote in this connection a passage by Jollivet-Castelot in New Horizons (December 1908) :" Alchemists were all agreed that Gold healed, that Gold was the greatest of all Great Remedies ; and they sought to administer it in powders, in solutions . " The Matter of the Great-Work, mixed with a liquid, liquefied, constituted the Elixir, the celebrated Elixir of long life which was to produce marvellous results . This is mentioned in all the pamphlets of the time ; it aroused as much interest as the Philosopher's Stone itself ; and legend relates that Nicholas Flamel and his wife Pernella, having drunk it, went to live for ever on an enchanted isle . " Well, is it not curious and suggestive that modern Medicinefollowing in this all the scientists of to-day, whatever branch of science they may study-at last proclaims, tacitly at least, the depth and the truth of ancient ` occult' science and makes use itself of its wonderful revelations ? " Just as the chemists at present recognise the Unity of Matter which has always been maintained by all the Alchemists, so also the doctors of the great medical schools possess themselves of the old prescriptions which point to Metallotherapy as the sanest and the safest treatment." " Besides, Metallotherapy and Electrotherapy-no doubt identical, since metals in contact with the skin produce currents-are quite obviously the best treatment in the case of neuropathy, of hysteria, or nervous phenomena of any kind whatever ." Mr . Bury described the sesthesiogenic effect of the application of certain metals to the skin . " Mr. Landouzy reported the case of lethargic sleep induced by the nearness of a magnet ; Dumontpallier and Pitres mention cases of sleep and waking brought about by metallic contact ." At the Salpetriere numerous researches were made by Charcot, which went to prove the powerful influence of a magnet on patients suffering from hysteria . " But it is especially to Professor H . Durville that the great honour belongs of having studied in detail and with remarkable ability the various influences of the magnet ; he has created the true theory of magnetism which is undoubtedly an agent derived from electricity or a form of this latter energy scattered and latent in all bodies and centralised by certain metals of which it constitutes the soul perhaps, certainly the medical value ." As to the Philosopher's Stone, we know that it was a chemical compound which had the power of transmuting metals into gold (Great-

392 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Work) or into silver (Little-Work) . Bose de Veze claims that it has actually been found, Van Helmont that he has seen and touched it in the form of a saffron coloured powder . Dr . Emmens has even sent to America ingots of Argentaurum, a precious substance which he had succeeded in making . As we have seen above, Papus said that this " magical " powder was called Elixir or Universal Panacea when it was taken inwardly . In short it was merely a condensation of the vital energy into a minimum of matter. We shall say nothing of Palingenesis, by means of which Alchemists claimed that they could produce a living being, plant, animal or human (the homunculus) . But is it a matter for laughter ? We look at a back number of the Matin and find the following over the signature of Dr . Stephane Leduc, Professor at the Medical School of Nantes :" Life presents itself to us as the result of two physical forces, one active, the osmotic pressure which puts the various molecules into motion ; the other passive, the resistance of the plasma and the membranes to this motion . The inequalities of the resistance of the latter to their reparation or union seem to be the cause of the chemical and electrical reactions of life, of nutrition, of assimilation and disassimilation . " I have been able by means of physical forces to reproduce the form of various cellular tissues constituting living beings, and the cells so obtained turn out to have the same main functions as the living cell. In 5 or 10 per cent . gelatine solutions it is possible to obtain a cellular tissue. Each cell has its covering membrane, its protoplasm, its nucleus . By using salt water as plasm and drops of the same salt . water coloured with a different extract, entirely liquid cells are obtained . I have produced liquid cells with liliary extensions . These cells have the double current of osmosis and molecular metabolism ; when dried up their movements stop ; they then present the image of the latent life of seeds and infusoria, for their movements start again as soon as the necessary humidity is restored to them . " I have reproduced by intussusception of organism and growth phenomena of nutrition which up to the present were considered as characteristics of life. Crystals grow by juxtaposition, as does a wall by the bricks placed on it . Up to now living beings alone have grown by intussusception, that is to say by mixing to the whole of their substance the substance absorbed . In trying to copy the physical conditions of life, I have produced artificial seeds made of one third of copper sulphate and two thirds of sugar with sufficient water tomake them into grains ; I sow these seeds into an artificial plasm made of water, gelatine, ferrocyanide of potassium and a little salt ;

ALCHEMY 393 the seed surrounds itself with a membrane of copper sulphate which is pervious to the water and the salts, but impervious to the sugar which sets up inside it a strong osmotic pressure owing to which the seed swells, germinates and grows, sending out rhizomes and roots, then vertical stems which may rise to a height of 12 inches ; these stems, simple or branched, sometimes have lateral leaves ; they have terminal organs in the shape of thorns, balls, ears, tendrils, etc . These growths have a circulation apparatus in which the sugar and the membranogenous substance rise, like the sap in the plant, to a height up to 12 inches. When a stem is broken during the growth, the pieces reunite ; a scar is formed and the growth starts again . These growths are sensitive to all physical and chemical influences, to heat, cold, variations of concentration, chemical poisons . But physiology is wrong in saying that sensitiveness or irritability, that is to say the power of reacting to impressions comin from outside, are characteristic of life. This sensitiveness is a genera property of matter ; it would be impossible to find an instance of action without reaction ; the very pavement responds to the least influence ; not only does it thrust back violently the heavy object which falls on it, but it responds by expanding to the mere touch of the finger . " The growths from these artificial cells exercise most of the functions of living beings, such as nutrition by intussusception, complicated organism, growth, sensitiveness, power to heal wounds ; therefore they constitute a link between the living world and the mineral world . One function only they do not yet possess, the power of reproduction this problem belongs to the same order as those which I have already solved, and I have prosecuted its study with the following results :" In the fertile cells, and generally in all cells capable of multiplying, Hermann Fol has discovered curious figures which he compares to magnetic spectres or phantoms. By means of physical forces and in liquids of the same composition as the living plasm I have reproduced not only these figures, called karyokinetic, but also in their regular sequence the very complicated successive appearances which they present during the phenomenon of cellular division from the rolled up cord called spiremen down to the final two cells . In the artificial plasm are seen in succession all the phenomena, all the movements and all the shapes which appear in the ovulum after its fertilisation . " The segmentation of the egg during incubation is one of the most mysterious phenomena of life . Up to now we had no conception of a physical force able to produce . such a result . Incubation, whatever may be the kind of its production, is always a physical action which produces in the egg currents which are slow to diffuse. In trying to produce in artificial plasms currents which are slow to diffuse, I have

394 THE OCCULT SCIENCES obtained a segmentation of such plasms entirely analogous to the segmentation of the egg. " These results have already given us a number of . important links between the mineral world and the living world ; they show the success of the new points of view which have produced them and of the methods by which they have been obtained ." And to the strong-minded people who mock at the idea of the Philosopher's Stone we offer another article published in the Euvre of the 19th March, 1925, over the signature of Mr . Philippe Lenormand " At a recent meeting of the Academy of Sciences, Professor d'Arsonval showed the design of a new electric generator capable of supplying a continuous potential different of 500,000 volts ! " To be sure higher potential differents had already been obtained, but with apparatus producing alternating currents. But it is these continuous currents of very high voltage which, as we shall see, are of the greatest interest to physicists . " Following Mr . d'Arsonval, Mr . Jean Perrin, professor of physical chemistry at the Sorbonne, for whose laboratory the new generator was intended, drew attention to this . "Mr. Jean Perrin spoke as . follows :" The advantage of this new generator is that it is designed on a principle which will enable the voltage of the continuous current supplied by it to be increased more and more . In its present form it gives 500,000 volts, but when the question of expense no longer arises, we shall on the same principle be able to construct an apparatus giving 1,000,000 volts, then 2,000,000, and on the day when we have at our disposal these potential differents, we shall again be able to devote ourselves to the nucleus of the atom . A new chemistry will be created whose field of action cannot yet be foreseen, and we may say that on that day something will be modified on this planet . " Let us try to understand the meaning of the enthusiastic prophecy of the learned professor . " And for this purpose let us remember first what is the composition of the atoms of all the bodies which constitute Matter . We know that these atoms consist of a central nucleus, a very tiny grain of positive electricity around which gravitate, like the planets round the sun, grains of negative electricity, the electrons . " Let us to-day only consider the nucleus of the atom, for this is characteristic of all bodies . This nucleus is not a simple grain of positive electricity . It consists of other grains smaller still called protons, and which are nothing other than nuclei of the atom of hydrogen, the simplest atom of all . It is the whole of the charge of electricity formed by the union of the protons which characterises the atom of a body and gives to the latter its peculiar properties . We know for instance

395 ALCHEMY that the azote atom has a charge seven times as great as the atom of hydrogen, oxygen eight times, sodium eleven times, and uranium, the most highly charged of all the nuclei, ninety-two times . " Except in the case of radioactive bodies, the atomic nuclei of which are complicated and consist of a very great number of protons, and which, no doubt on that account, spontaneously disintegrate, the structure of the nucleus is very stable . " If we were able to withdraw from the nucleus of an atom some of the protons of which it consists, we should be able to transform one substance into another, we should obtain a true transmutation of matter, and the dream of the alchemists of old would come true . " But is there a means of obtaining this splitting up of the nucleus ? " Down to very recent times the answer to this was no, and the doctrine of the immutability of matter could be held to be settled . But a few years ago an English scientist, Sir Ernest Rutherford, succeeded in partially partially transforming bodies into hydrogen . bombarding azote, phosphorus and aluminium with the Alpha rays of radium, he succeeded in extracting from the nucleus of the atom of these substances its component parts, the protons, that is to say the nuclei of the atom of hydrogen . " The Alpha rays of radium possess an extraordinary force . They are composed of terrible projectiles consisting of atoms of helium charged with electricity and having a formidable speed . " Now it is these projectiles which by their concussion succeed in disintegrating the structure of the nucleus of the other atoms . " The force of a charge of electricity depends on the height of the potention from which it falls . In the case of the Alpha rays of radium Sir Ernest Rutherford says that it may be taken that these atoms of helium charged with electricity fell from about a million volts . And by means of this million volts it is already possible to extract from the nucleus of an atom a few of the protons of which it consists . " With two million volts at our disposal, what deeper disintegrations, what unexpected transmutations might we not effect ! " And in this lies the very great interest of a generator like the one mentioned by Mr . d'Arsonval and Mr . Perrin, on the day on which it would produce a potential different of two million volts . Let us give an example of what we might expect from the bombardment of the atom by means of this formidable voltage . The nucleus of the atom of mercury contains 53 charges, the nucleus of the atom of gold has 52 . Therefore it would suffice to extract from the atom of mercury one proton, one nucleus of hydrogen, and it would be transformed into gold . " Will the philosopher's stone at last be found ? " The importance of this discovery, or rather of this find, and its

396 THE OCCULT SCIENCES consequences is obvious . First of all it bears out the hexagrammatist theory (see Appendix) as to the structure of the atom, with this slight difference that no doubt there are not four simple atoms but only one . And do we not here fall back into obvious Alchemy ? Look again at the last sentence of the above short but important article :-" It would suffice to extract from the atom of mercury one proton, one nucleus of hydrogen, and it would be transformed into gold ." The Alchemists tried to do this, for it is merely the transmutation in their heated retorts . We are going to attempt it by means of an electric generator . So long as the end is attained, what matter the means, and will not the theory of the scientists of old be entitled to just as much honour ? Here is another " modern " aspect of Alchemy . In the January and February, 1925, numbers of the Occult Review there were published two articles signed by Ralph Shirley and Fulblor Hamel referring to a fantastic discovery which Mrs . Dickinson is said to have made at Brighton, which is shortly as follows :Whilst experimenting with Eastern gums and oils for the purpose of producing a new antiseptic, Mrs . Dickinson observed reddish brown crystals on the lid of the receptacle containing the mixture . She directed the flame of a Bunsen burner on to them and after a slight explosion she obtained a crystallisation in the shape of a hollow cylinder. Soon after she saw suspended in a bottle of her Eastern oil a brown object the size of a ladybird and the shape of a scarab, of a beautiful golden red, fitted with fine threads, giving in the sun bright rays of great luminosity . She enclosed this nucleus in a tube in which it continued to radiate intensely, depositing on the outer wall a steam which condensed into crystals some of which had extraordinary beauty, and resembled crystallised sunbeams. If these crystals are placed in a tube and held in a pail of water, they purify and vitalise the latter . We are here faced with a new force, superior to radium, for it is in addition able to multiply . It is a universal purifier and a universal solvent. If a culture is placed in a zinc receptacle and this receptacle into the tank of a boiler, the latter is cleaned automatically . This marvellous water refines oil in the highest degree . Unleavened bread made with this vitalised water remains fresh for an indefinite time provided it is damped from time to time with the water, which can also be used in the cleaning of skins, of flax, as an antiseptic, and for many other purposes . These are the facts . Alchemy alone can explain them . Are we not at last face to face with the Philosopher's Stone, which is not a

ALCHEMY 397 stone but a strange substance having the vital qualities above set out, and which corresponds to the descriptions given by Thomas Vaughan, Arnaud de Villeneuve and others ? That substance was protean in character and, like that found by Mrs . Dickinson, made water radioactive . It is surprising that some scientist does not take up these studies to arrive at some definite result .

CHAPTER IV

HIGH MAGIC I The Kabbala

WE have given an intermediate, connecting place to Alchemy . Our

readers will have guessed why. In our humble opinion Alchemy, owing to something if not childish at least chimerical, still forms part of Low Magic. And small indeed, although not negligible, is the number of Occultists who study it and still credit it with a triple power which is both risky and harmful, that of being able to make gold from other metals, an operation which to-day is of no importance, as paper money has taken the place of gold, the latter losing its value as soon as it is possible to make it commercially, and it is probably one day going to disappear altogether from finance ; the power of finding an elixir, a panacea curing all ills, useless now that medicine attacks direct and locally the physical ill, and has in addition found the means of renewing the health of the enfeebled body ; the power finally of creating living beings, even men, this phenomenon being no doubt illusory, in any case inferior to natural birth, and in addition dangerous on a planet which is already overcrowded and where men kill each other in order to find fresh places to exploit . On the other hand in its principles Alchemy derives from High Magic, from the Kabbala, from Hermetism, with which we will now proceed to deal, and which are the summit of Ancient Science, the part which might be named Superscience . Here also we shall be brief, for this Encyclopaedia is only intended for interested people, who wish to have some general idea, some concise and brief survey, and above all practical knowledge . If they want to go farther on the noble road-and we should like to see more and more neophytes preparing for initiation-they will have to get together a special library where the important books will find a place, or attend the somewhat infrequent lectures on these great questions . What then is the Kabbala ?* It is not a book as many seem to think . It is a mystical doctrine of interpretation, an esoteric Tradition, 398

HIGH MAGIC 399 the hidden science of ancient and modern Magi, especially the explanation of the Macrocosm (the Universe) and the Microcosm (Man), it is the Key of the Great Enigma ; but in order to open the Lock with this Key, it is necessary to be an initiate . We do not wish evil to anyone . But it is astounding to see books being written and sold in which the definitions and conceptions of Occult Sciences are absolutely and radically false . That these books should attack or even ridicule could be understood, and would be but a sign of lack of thought ; but that they should contain mistakes of fact, this really is cheating and not admissible . Thus in The Occult Sciences, by a certain Etienne Ducret " of the Society of Dramatic Authors " (why is he not satisfied with writing plays ?) we read, " The word occult is applied to certain so-called sciences which produce marvellous and supernatural results in contradiction with experimental science ." Now nothing could be more incorrect . Only a very small part of Occult Science, at present given up by serious students, deals with this vulgar hankering after miracles . To reduce the Occult Sciences to the level of Witchcraft and to confound the two is an insult to the eminent persons who seek to find a general explanation of the physical world and of the mysteries of the Invisible world . What respect then can we have for the kind of dictionary of occultism which Mr . Ducret compiles, and which abounds with silliness . To listen to him, for instance, the Kabbala is nothing more than a Jewish doctrine, a mystic explanation of the Scriptures . To listen to him, Taroc is (in four lines) a pack of 78 cards where other figures take the place of the usual ones, and which is preferred by fortune tellers . What a remarkable teacher 1 He reminds one of the Capuchin Friar who thought the Talmud was a Rabbi . The Petit Larousse also misleads the public, which is much more serious, as here we have a lexicon which every year is sold by thousands . There we read that " Astrology is a chimerical science which claims to be able to tell the future by looking at the stars, as if it were possible for them to have any influence whatever on events which depend solely from the will of man "-that " Alchemy is the chimerical art of the transmutation of metals "-that " the Kabbala is the chimerical art of communicating with spirits ." One is amazed at the ignorance of some. of these editors, who yet have taken their degree in Letters or in Science . That they should attack might be allowable. That they should dogmatise is unpardonable . And what a strange mentality-claim that events depend solely on our freewill ! speak of an art of communicating with spirits," etc. Every word is but a proof of insufficient information . And we, who have read so much, are still afraid to make foolish mistakes in this book, and apologize for them to our readers in advance 1

400

THE OCCULT SCIENCES We hope to be forgiven this short attack of bad temper . It is due to the thousands of pinpricks and small annoyances borne each day through listening to or reading so many absurdities, so many lies, so much confusion and disdain concerning estimable and deep subjects (even though they do not contain the whole Truth) as to which most people have but vague glimmerings, whilst putting into the same bag a silly superstition and a great thought, a learned occultist and a popular fortune-teller. But let us return to our short study of the Kabbala . There is a Jewish Kabbala. 1 But the Kabbala is not of Jewish origin . Renan thinks it comes from Chaldea . Schelling sees in it the key to all religious systems . Malleville says that the first worshippers of the stars were already Kabbalists . Basnage places the cradle of the Kabbala in Egypt, Franck puts it in Persia, Etheridge in India, Myer among the Aryans. Others compare the Gnosis and the Kabbala, considering the latter the Jewish Gnosis ; yet others think it was born in the Middle Ages ; some think it is Zoroastrian, even Chinese . Would it not be simplest to say that at bottom it is the highest thought of the elect of all nations ? " According to the general thought of the Zohar," says P. Vulliaud, " the Kabbala seems itself to be but a prior tradition which is the universal tradition of which all peoples have more or less kept a recollection ." But it is possible that the Jewish people may have preserved the most exact and in some way the most ideal recollection . And on the other hand it is so rich, so complex, so hidden if not obscure that, although studied by the most varied commentators, there still remains a vague truth upon which work, meditation and research gradually throw light. It is thanks to the genius of these exegetists that it remains living and fertile . 2 You see men like Eliphas Levi, Papus, Pierre Piobb and many others extract its teaching, no doubt coloured by their own individuality, but how filled with living thought and powerful originality . It seems at any rate certain that some main conceptions govern the whole Kabbalistic tradition . First of all the conception of Unity which we have found in Alchemy (the unity of Matter) and which we find in Hermetic Philosophy (one God, and not gods ; the conAs to which read the masterly work of Paul Vulliaud (published by Nourry in 1923) . There is no need to point out that numerous books have been written on the Kabbala. The work of Papua (published by Chacornac) contains a whole bibliography on the subject, classified according to countries and according to subject matter . The best known French writers who have written on the Kabbala are A. Franck, E . Amelineau, Ch . Barlet, Ren6 Caillg, Eliphas Levi, Fabre d'Olivet, Stanislas de Guaita, A . Jhounet, J . Lejay, P . Lenain, Emile. Michelet, J. Peladan, Saint Yves d'Alveydre, A. Bertet, Alexandre Weill, S. Harpe, Sedir, Munck, etc .

HIGH MAGIC 401 ception of gods is for the crowd ; the One God is the esoteric doctrine of the initiates .) From this Unity the Kabbala derives the Binary, the Ternary, the Quaternary, etc ., thanks to which, by analogy, the Magi explained everything. Hence the importance, in the Kabbala, of Numbers from which so much may be learnt, and which constitute the basis of the philosophy of Pythagoras . Is it not the conception of the Binary, which in fact suggested the thought of the eternal struggle between Good and Evil (God and Satan, which are found in all religions), hence the principle of universal Antagonism, the principle of balance between two shocks, physical or moral, etc . ? Is it not from the Ternary that the idea of the Trinity, of the Three Worlds (material, moral, divine) the idea of the three realms of Nature, etc., have sprung, these themselves being based on facts (the three fundamental colours, the three conditions of matter, etc.), here also bringing with them so many fertile analogies ? Is it not the Quaternary which regulates these ideas or these factscardinal points, the shape of the cross, the four elements, etc. ? And thus also for the Quinary, the Septenary, and the combinations of the double Ternary, the double Quaternary, etc . All these are so many kabbalistic keys which enable the hand of the initiate to open so many doors of the Hidden Science. Space, Time, Laws, Justice, Love, Phenomena, everything in the Kabbala has a numerical correspondence, the whole Universe itself being harmony . Are you now surprised at numerical Onomantics which translate a personal name into a number and give it a moral or divinatory meaning ? Through the Number the Kabbala is the study of universal harmony and also of universal struggle . The Kabbala is also the great art of secret relationships . Open a book like the Formulary of High Magic of Pierre Piobb, one of the most important and most remarkable that have as yet been comled about these matters, and which contains more than one shock P r the unprepared reader. You will find a brief sketch of these relationships, as for instance :In the Hebrew Alphabet, between the letter, its number, its meaning, its leaf of Taroc, its sign of the Zodiac, its sacred name and its symbol . In Geometry, between each figure and its symbol . In Astrology, between the signs of the Zodiac, the planets, metals, colours, plants, animals, perfumes, parts of the body controlled, magical virtues . And so in everything else-always the law of Analogy is supreme . And there is more than this in the Kabbala . There is the idea of a fluid which is magnetic, vital or essential, which is called

402 THE OCCULT SCIENCES tetragramma, inri, astral light, astral body, perisprit, ether, double, enormon, glorious body, etc . This subtle fluid, hidden and powerful, the object of so much controversy, of so many modern experiments, and which in part accounts for miracles, witchcraft, spiritualism, mediumship, clairvoyance, psychometry, etc ., this fluid which is the basis of Astrology, of Magic and of many divinatory sciences, the Kabbala also deals with it . It is one of its elements, one of its mysteries, combined with this other, the creative power of the Word . " The Word does not express an idea, it creates it," writes Rene Schwaeble in his Problem of Evil . " That is the whole of the Kabbala !" Not quite, but a great part of it . The whole of Ritual Magic at any rate is based on the power of the word, and it is this conception which gives its solemn grandeur to the opening words of the Gospel according to St . John, " In the beginning (or in the principle) was the Word, and the Word was God (or with God) ." The Power of the Word . The Power of the Fluid which connects by an invisible chain everything which exists . The Power of the Number . Here, subject to error on our part, you have the essence of the Kabbala which, by using this threefold secret in the light of Analogy, attempted to give a complete and logical explanation of the destiny of the Universe and of Man . It would be long, difficult, and beyond our scope to analyse in detail all the books which have been inspired by the Kabbala, or to follow the latter into all the sidepaths along which it enters into all the realms of the intellect, since none escapes it . But we may give a few examples of its methods and its conclusions . Let us take if you will the remarkable explanation of the rophecy of Ezekiel suggested by Eliphas Levi in his Occult Harmony ofp` the Two Testaments . 1 It really has an enormous fascination . It will be remembered that when Jerusalem was threatened by the Assyrians, Ezekiel, looked upon as a prophet by the people, but who in reality was a priest and occult initiate-wrote an admirable page, but oh ! how obscure . Now Levi claims that this sublime page was nothing but an attempt to preserve, by symbols, and so that it should not be lost, the tradition of the occult theology of the Jews. And line by line the learned author interprets it, showing in passing its relations with the Egyptian, Hindu and Assyrian initiations (according to various sculptures), with the Taroc (21st leaf, the World), and finally with the Gospel where we find the Lion, the Eagle, the Bull and the Man, the signs of the four holy Editors ; he also points out why Moses had 1 Manuscript written in 1861 for Baron Speladieri, handed by the latter in 1880 to M . Charrot who was the moving spirit of a Rosicrucian set in Lyons, and finally published by Nourrit in 1920.

HIGH MAGIC 403 forbidden that the Temple in Jerusalem should be covered with hieroglyphics which had led to the worship of idols, despised by the Jews (who, like all Kabbalists, were in favour of one God, that is to say Unity, against gods) . And thus we see Ezekiel stand up against idols, against false prophets, against unworthy hierophants, reproach, threaten, curse, prophecy . And what a lesson in Kabbala-this said in passing-is not the Temple of Solomon itself, oriented, arranged, constructed, decorated in accordance with an architecture which itself is but a summary of the Hidden Doctrine 1 The curses of Ezekiel consist of seven parts, corresponding to various chapters of the Apocalypse . Subsequently the dream of the Prophet takes the form of a Cross, itself an image of the four cardinal points and of the squaring of the circle . The Cross is the Tau, represented by the letter T, the basis of the temple of the future envisaged by the prophet, and which will be the prototype of a Universe ruled by a theocracy forming a hierarchy of intelligence and of truth . The prophecy of Ezekiel, in short, is the work of a reformer, a palingenesic poem which is the theme of the Apocalypse . And here is a second example, taken from the same book :According to Eliphas Levi, the Apocalypse itself is but a symbolical summing up of the Initiation and a key to the High Kabbala . The series of events to come must be looked for only under the veil of a transcendental and prophetic philosophy of History . It is, in short, the Struggle of the Spirit with the Beast, of the True Science with Ignorance, of the Seven Virtues with the Seven Vices . For the 7 candlesticks, the 7 stars, the 7 seals, the 7 angels, the 7 trumpets, the 7 Churches of Asia are merely symbolical of the Seven Ages through which the Church must pass before the triumph of the New Jerusalem . These seven ages start with the Primitive Church, followed by the Age of Martyrs, Christianity under Constantine, the age of the great Doctors and the great Saints, the Barbaric Invasions, the Renaissance, and finally the regeneration of the Church through the Kabbala. This Seventh Age, we have attained it and we are in truth the witnesses of a marvellous occult renaissance . Another writer, Spicer, in a book entitled Our Times and the Fate of the World, also says that " the time is near," but he interprets the well known Vision of Daniel . It is possible that books of this kind are in the main mystical, but it is nevertheless noteworthy that they agree with the fact that Occult Science is experiencing an extraordinary rebirth . Something like a mighty breath is felt in the air . And it may well be that an agreement wilt be come to, by a kind of kabbalistic communion, between the great spiritualist doctrines of to-day . The following are further Kabbalistic methods taken from the

404

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Jewish Kabbala of Paul Vulliaud of which we have already spoken, and without referring to those of Christ who, speaking only in parables, did in fact use the method of the initiates . The language of the Kabbala was symbolical . A whole lexicon might be extracted from the Zohar (where the initiates are called the workers in the fields, the great doctors mighty trees, etc .) The technique of the Kabbala on the other hand is most complicated . It is divided into three main groups :-Gematrics (relations between different conceptions, based on the equivalent of the value of the letters), Notaries (forming new words with the initials of the word to be interpreted), Themura (substitution for certain letters of others according to various kabbalistic combinations) . Thus kabbalistically Jacob's Ladder is identified with Mount Sinai, the numerical value of both being 130 . So also the noted word of 72 letters invoked by the kabbalistic theologian represents God and his 72 superior intelligences . The whole Talmud is kabbalistic . That is why it has been said that the letters of the Hebrew alphabet alone are living. Some have even gone so far as to interpret the shape of the letters which, in Hebrew, are in truth little drawings . We cannot go farther into these, subtleties . We shall in the strange country of Numbers find other matters over which to marvel and meditate. II

Numbers The mysterious reel of Numbers has always puzzled the mind, and we have seen that Pythagoras founded on it a whole mystical philosophy . In Antiquity men believed in the influence of numbers on our life, the Alchemists believed in their occult power . Our own astronomers and chemists, says Madame Fraya, likewise hold that " a harmonious relation exists between the Universe and Matter and the primary numbers." Let us never, in his turn says Louis Claude de SaintMartin, separate numbers from the idea which each of them represents, for then they would lose all their virtue and be of no more use to us than if we learnt the syntax of a language when we knew none of its words. The popular mind which is so often intuitive although it has been accused of being childish, has at haphazard collected some of these old traditions as to the power of numbers . We have the proof in the sayings, " Never two without three," " It is unlucky to sit down 18 at table," etc.

HIGH MAGIC 405 Mr. Guymiot, a modern hermetist, claims, following Agrippa, Planiscampi and Saint-Martin, that Numbers contain the elements of all sciences . E. Bisc de Veze in his turn deals with the mysteries of numbers in his Esoteric Doctrine throughout the Ages. This may be referred to for further details, also the Occult Philosophy of Cornelius Agrippa (1727), the Mysteries of the Hand of Desbarolles, etc . In short it will be seen that the Science of Numbers is included in the Kabbala. It is one of its foundations. It has been studied by eminent men. No one will be surprised to hear that we were one day present at a lecture on hermetic philosophy given by an Occultist of note who intended to give a sketch of the theory of Numbers with reference to the Taroc, and that at the end of an hour he had reached the explanation of the number 4 1 First of all let us observe that in the system of Pythagoras odd numbers are preferred to even numbers . But apart from the figures 1 and 8 which represent the Godhead, perfect harmony, Pythagoras had a special liking for primary numbers as arithmetic calls those which are divisible only by themselves or by one. They are as follows :-I, 2, 8, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 28, 29, 31, 87, 41, 43, 47, 58, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 88, 89, 97 . These, says Madame Fraya, are good numbers in a sweepstake or a lottery . Choose them, or failing them, a multiple of 8 . We will now give a brief sketch of the chief numbers . 1. The Pythagoreans considered that 1 represented the Godhead, that it contains everything and that everything is derived from it . It is a centre which is everywhere, indivisible and absolutely indispensable, as there is no number in which the unit will not be found. 2. This is the origin of Evil, since through it unity ceases and duality, that is the struggle, begins with all its cruelties and all its trickery. Unity could only be Eternal Good . Two arises, which makes for Antagonism, and Peace is over. What is hesitation ? The balancing of the mind between two resolutions . Even when you have made a decision, you will never act so well as if no thought opposing the first intention had come to you . What is the World if not an eternal duel in all its elements between two principles? Instead of an eternal spring there hastens along the rain cloud to hide the sun . All our troubles, all the dramas of Life are due to a second event which comes into conflict with the normal event which was the fulfilment of our existence . 2, the number of discord and of war in ourselves or with others . However, the number 2 is also the basis of the Binary which is not necessarily evil in all its combinations . Alternately

406 THE OCCULT SCIENCES man thinks and acts according to this law, and if by his will he puts it in harmony he remains always at an equal distance from hesitation and from rashness . The Binary Law, says P . Jagot, rules the astral sign-manual of man in the following manner :-Whether dealing with physiognomy, the hand or handwriting, they can be considered from two angles-length and breadth . The lengths denote statics, thought, quality, fulness . The breadths denote dynamics, action, quantity, value. And the application of this principle to Physiognomony, Chiromancy and Graphology gives us information as to the relation between the qualities of thought and the faculties for action . There are very many other applications of the Binary which everyone will be able to find for himself . 3. This number has something sacred in it . The old dogma of the Trinity common to so many religions and cosmogonies, so many things in life and in legend, in history and in nature are in threes, such as Birth, Life and Death ; the three states of matter ; the three phases of each event (start, middle and end) ; the three kingdoms of Nature ; the three ages of life (youth, middle age, old age) ; the three fundamental colours, etc. Remember also that Christ asked three times of Peter if he loved Him, and that He fell three times on the road to Golgotha ; that the Church has divided the world beyond into three dwellings, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, that the Angelus is rung three times, and that it teaches three theological virtues . Look at Mythology. There are three Graces, three Fates, three Harpies, three Gorgons, three Furies. Occultism finally shows us (we leave aside so many other threes) three parts in Man ; we have already mentioned them, the physical body, the astral body and the mental body . Three also represents the triangle (the three masonic points), it is the number of the most beautifully symbolical colours of the British flag (blue, the colour of the sky, white the colour of water, red the colour of fire . Now are not the three noble elements of nature in fact air, water and fire?) And how much could not be said about the Ternary in Physiognomony (vegetativeness, sensitiveness, intellect, corresponding to the lower part, the middle part and the upper part of the face .) But we have given enough instances . 4. Multiple of two (double Binary) . Looked at from a certain angle it foretells disputes and battles just like 2 . However various conceptions are connected with the quaternary, such as the four elements, the four cardinal points, the four Evangelists, the four temperaments according to Hippocrates, Polti, Gary de Lacroze, etc. To the Kabbalists it is also the Cross, the Sphinx, the Cube, etc. 5 . Lucky number, says Fraya, although Saint-Martin thinks it full of falseness and lies . It foretells success in affairs of the heart .

HIGH MAGIC 407 It is the number of the vowels which together make the name of God (a, e, i, o, u, or by anagram, i, e, o, u, a :-Jeoua, Jeova, Jehovah) . The Church recommends 5 acts before Communion (acts of faith, of love, of humility, of desire and of hope), and recognises 5 sacramental principles (sign of the Cross, Holy Water, Blessed Bread, Kiss of Peace, Benediction of the Priest) . In the Kabbala 5 is the Pentagram, the flaming star of the Gnostics . It is the number of Jesus (5 letters) . There are 5 senses (hearing, smell, touch, taste, sight), 5 fingers of the hand, 5 bones in the metacarpus, 5 in the metatarsus, 5 making the cranial casing. There are 5 parts of the world . There are also 5 divisions in accountancy (goods, cash, bills payable, bills receivable, profit and loss) and 5 acts in the classic drama . The Law of Five applies also to topological Physiognomony . We also notice, from the point of view of luck at gaming, which always has something mysterious and kabbalistic in it, that in " Petits Chevaux " on a board of 9 figures, the figure 5 is called " the House figure," because it protects the Casino against the gamblers on the strips (one being numbered 1, 3, 6, 8, and the other 2, 4, 7, 9), where the gamblers stand an equal chance . Without the 5 the chances would be equal all round, but in order to beat the public the Casino must have more chances than the gamblers . By the aid of this protecting 5, the gambler has only a 4 .9th chance of winning against a 5 .9th chance of losing. 6 . This is the Hexagram (see appendix), the double triangle of heaven (point upward) and earth (point downward) . It is the pentacle of Solomon, the axiom engraved on the Emerald Tablet, the number of Liberty and of Work (Papus) . 7. One of the most remarkable figures from the point of view of Mystical mathematics . We were speaking of gaming . How many people begin with 7 . Ask anyone to think of a figure between 1 and 10-in most cases he will think of 7. Why ? It is the figure of fate personified . It abounds in Religion and Occultism, in the Bible, legend and history . There are 7 Sacraments, 7 capital sins, 7 penitential psalms, and in the story of the Blessed Virgin, 7 sorrows, 7 joys and 7 glories . The Church teaches us that there are 7 capital virtues (humility, charity, chastity, altruism, temperance, gentleness and zeal) and 7 gifts of the Spirit (wisdom, intelligence, counsel, strength, science, piety, fear of God). The Apocalypse speaks of 7 Churches, 7 spirits publishing the praises of God, 7 seals of the Book of Prophets, 7 ministering angels, of 7 plagues, 7 branches of the symbolical candlestick, 7 lamps, 7 stars, etc . In the life of Christ we note 7 words spoken on the Cross, 7 loaves in the basket at the feeding of the 5,000 . God the Father,

408 THE OCCULT SCIENCES having created the world,-rested on the 7th day, whence it follows that there are 7 days of the week . There are 7 weeks between Easter and Whitsun . The Bible adds its quota of 7 fat kine and 7 lean kine in the dream of Pharaoh, the number of messianic years foretold by Daniel is a multiple of 7, the sacrifice of 7 calves and 7 sheep offered by the friends of Job, the gift of 7 beasts made by Abraham to Abimelech, the army of Joshua went 7 times round the town of Jericho before its walls fell . The theologians of the Middle Ages in counting up the blessings of the elect in Paradise found 7 for the body (health, beauty, agility, liberty, pleasure, strength and long life) and 7 for the soul (concord, honour, power, security, joy, wisdom, friendship) . Finally Theosophy teaches that Man is made of 7 principles of which we have given the Hindu names previously . This is not all . Let us look through some books dealing with Antiquity. We have 7 wonders of the world (the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis in Babylon, the Statue of Jupiter at Olympia, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum at Helicarnassus, the Pharos at Alexandria) . We have the 7 Sages of Greece (Thales, Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobolos, Periander), and the 7 Chiefs before Thebes, the 7 heads of the Lernian Hydra, the 7 hills on which Rome is built . (The Palatine, the Aventine, the Capitol, the Coelius, the Viminal, the Esquilin, the Janiculus) . Is it necessary to mention further the 7 colours of the rainbow, the 7 notes in music, etc . The figure 7, we are told by Fraya, means intelligence, strength, extraordinary adventures . In playing, put on 7 . When you buy a lottery ticket, see that it contains the figure 7 . You smile ? Well, look at any drawing you like . Here we have the drawing of September, 1928 . It is full of sevens :Town of Paris 1898-No . 552,307 wins Frs . 100,000 . Town of Paris 1912-No . 436,187 wins Frs . 100,000 . Town of Paris 1921 Nos . 1,637,923 and 356,927 each win Frs . 100,000. Credit National 1919-No . 5,852,077 wins 1,000,000 and No . 4,077, 846 wins 500,000. Credit National 1921-No . 3,410,027 wins 500,000 frs . Foncieres 1885-No . 94,877 wins 100,000 frs . 8, 10, 11, 12.-The double quaternary : 8 means checks, mourning, sorrows . 10 from the point of view of luck is dull and anyhow . But in the Kabbala it is the perfect number . It is the Decade, considered under its Hebrew name of Sephiroth, feminine plural of sephar or sepher

HIGH MAGIC

409 which means number and from which comes the English word Cipher. There are ten sephiroth or various emanations :1. Kether 2. Chokmah 3. Binah 4. Chesed 5. Geburah 6. Tiphereth 7. Netzah 8. Hod 9. Yesod 10. Malkuth

The Crown . . Wisdom Intellect Mercy Severity Beauty Victory Splendour . . Foundation The Kingdom .

Creative Trinity (Life, Form, Light) . The created Universe (having their analogy in the seven planets of Astrology).

12 is another son of 2 (2 x 6). It is evil, although there were 12 good Apostles round Christ, and there are 12 months, hence 12 signs of the Zodiac. 11 is grotesque, lopsided . A line of 11 syllables has no possible cesura, no music . Dreaming of the figure 11 means a worry, a loss of money. 12 in the Kabbala is the number of the Philosopher's Stone . Before passing to the 9, let us give this ternary key to numbers according to Pierre Piobb :1st Ternary :1 2 =1-x-1 . 3 =2+1.

Unity .. The Binary The Ternary

2nd Ternary :4 =2+2. 5 =2+3. 6 =3+3.

The Quaternary .. The Quinquenary . . The double Ternary

3rd Ternary :7 =4 + 3 . 8 =4 + 4 . 9 =4 + 5 .

..

The Septenary .. The double Quaternary The triple Ternary . .

. . The Being. . . Union. . . Generation. . . Law . . . Science. . . Progress. Truth . Fate. Knowledge .

The ternary key, adds the learned author of the Formulary of High Magic, is, if not the only, at least the easiest of numerical keys and sufficient for most magical proceedings . 9. Now we come to 9 which is an excellent figure . It seems that it brings prizes in lotteries . We see in Mythology 9 Muses (Cleo, Melpomene, Thalia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Urania, Polyhymnia,

410 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Calliope) ; in Greece 9 Archontes ; in the Christian heaven 9 Choirs of Angels (seraphim, cherubim, powers, dominions, archangels, angels, virtues, thrones, principalities), and a corresponding hierarchy among the devils in Hell . The Church has Novenas . A woman carries for nine months the fruit of her womb . After His death Christ appeared 9 times to His disciples . The following arithmetical curiosities are pointed out to us 9X2 =18and9X9 =81 . 9X8 =27and9X8 =72. 9X4 = 36 and 9 x 7 = 63 . 9 X 5 = 45 and 9 X 6 = 54 . Now these results of multiplication show in pairs the same figures 1 and 8, 2 and 7, 3 and 6, 4 and 5, all adding to 9 . 18 . Here we have the most amazing contradictions . Some look upon it as a figure of curse, others as a figure of blessing . Some will never travel on the 18th, nor sit down 18 at table, fearing in the one case an accident, in the other the death of a guest within the year. Christ was betrayed, they say, by Judas, the 18th at table at the Last Supper. And they quote facts, forgetting no doubt all the 18ths of the month (even falling on a Friday), when nothing happened to anybody, for by no means all meals at which there are 13 entail an early death, nor do all journeys on the 18th bring a catastrophe . Others say that the 18th is lucky for them . The proper conclusion is that 18 is not necessarily an unlucky number . It has possibly a lucky or unlucky influence depending on the individual . In any case it foretells something unusual . And now let us look at History with its coincidences of which Victor Hugo thought so much :1 . The Due de Berry (son of Charles X), the husband of a foreign Princess, is murdered by Louvel on the 18th February, 1820 (the month of the fall of Louis-Philippe) and he abdicates in favour of his grandson aged 10, but he is told that it is too late . The Revolution of 1830 lasts 8 days. Charles X lost his throne at the age of 74 and went to England where he died in exile . 2 . The Due d'Orleans (son of Louis-Philippe), the husband of a foreign Princess, dies a violent death on the 18th February, 1852 (the month of the fall of Louis-Philippe) and he abdicates in favour of his grandson aged 10, but he is told that it is too late . The Revolution of 1848 lasts 8 days . Louis-Philippe lost his throne at the age of 74 and went to England, where he died in exile . Are not all these parallels of misfortune grotesque Christopher Columbus venerated Friday . Well, had he not noticed that it was on a Friday (3rd August, 1492) that he left the Harbour of Palos with his 8 boats to go to India by the sea route, being sure

HIGH MAGIC 411 that the earth was round ? It was on a Friday that he saw birds, the first sign of an inhabited land . It was on a Friday (12th October, 1492) that after 70 days of sailing he landed, proud and happy, on the small island of Lucayas, thus setting his foot on American soil . It was on a Friday (17th May, 1492) that he made his triumphant entry into Barcelona . It was on a Friday (30th November) that he planted a Cross at Puerto Santo . It was on a Friday (4th January) at sunset that he set sail for Spain . It was on a Friday that he entered full of glory into Palos . As we are restoring Friday to honour,-that Friday which is sometimes looked upon as an unlucky day, quite wrongly so since it is the day of Venus, and is generally chosen for great festivities (it is true that Christ died on a Friday and that the Church forbids its faithful to eat meat on that day-Christ and Venus at opposite poles),-let us remember :That it was on a Friday (7th September, 1565) that the oldest town in the United States, St . Augustine, was founded by Melenden ; on a Friday (10th October, 1620) that the first English Emigrants landed at Prineetown ; on a Friday (17th November, 1777) that in the War of Independence the town of Saratoga surrendered, as also (19th October, 1781) the town of Yorktown ; on a Friday (26th February, 1732) that Washington was born (notice that 26 = 18 X 2, and that 1 +7 +8 +2 = 13) ; on a Friday that the newly constituted Republic of the United States signed its treaty of alliance with the Comte de Vergenues, the minister of Louis XVI . As will be seen, our sister State beyond the Atlantic has no cause to complain of the much maligned Friday . Returning to the figure 18, let us see what was the opinion of some strong minds not much given to superstition . Victor Hugo believed in the evil influence of this number . His note books are full of observations on the subject . When in 1871 he started for the National Assembly at Bordeaux, he notes that he and his friends left Paris on the 18th February, that in the saloon car in which they travelled they were 18, including Louis Blanc, that the lodgings reserved for them in Bordeaux were at No . 18 rue Saint Maur . The night of the 13th March the poet could not sleep, he was thinking of numbers, the dream of Pythagoras . He thought of all the curious coincidences of 13 since the month of January, and remembered that in a few hours he was to leave No. 13 rue Saint Maur . On the evening of the same day he was sought out at the restaurant Lanta where he was to dine with some friends, his daughter-in-law, Alice, and his two grandchildren Georges and Jeanne . They were waiting for Charles Hugo .

412

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Someone asked for Victor Hugo . It was the proprietor of his rooms, M. Porte . Quite briefly he said to him : "Sir, be strong, M . Charles . . ." " Well ? " " He is dead ." This was on 13th March, 1871 . Gaston Derys has collected the following coincidences in connection with the number 13 from the lives of various writers :• On the 13th December, 1922, Henri. Beraud received the Goncourt Prize. At that time he had written 13 books . He lived at No . 67 (6 + 7 = 13) rue Rochechouart, telephone No . 5493 . • Ernest La Jeunesse noticed that on the death of Oscar Wilde 13 persons in a suburban dormitory took off their hats before a coffin bearing the number 18 ." Gaston Derys also points out that the Cafe Anglais, where there were often 13 at table, was situate both at No . 13 Boulevard des Anglais and No . 13 rue Marivaux. It closed its doors on the 31 (18 reversed) March of the year 1913, and it was in the thirteenth week of the same year that the house in which it was situate fell a prey to the pick of the housebreakers . " It was on a Friday the 13th that Annunzio in 1907 met with an accident in which he nearly lost an eye . The carriage which he took was numbered 13 . The driver asked for 13 lire . On returning home he found 18 letters . That evening at table there were 18 guests . • It was also on a 13th (August, 1922) that he had such a dangerous fall. " This explains the fact that Annunzio, in sending one of his books to a friend, dated the dedication' Arcachon, the 2nd January 1912 + 1,' and that in his manuscripts the page 13 is numbered 12a . " Musset, who dreaded both Friday and 13, was worried because his journey with George Sand began on a 13th . "Richard Wagner, whose name and personal name consist together of 13 letters, was born in 1813, died on 13th February, 1883, saw Tannhduser produced for the first time in Paris on 13th March 1861, where it was repeated on 13th May, 1895. • Paul Deschanel, born on the 13th, was married on Friday the 13th, and it was on a 13th that the Chamber made him a candidate for the Presidency . His name and personal name consist of 13 letters . " Henry Kistemaekers whose name consists of 13 letters, was born on 13th October, got his degree in Letters on a 13th, had Martha accepted on a 18th, and its dress rehearsal was on a 13th. The first night of La Blessure in Paris was also on a 13th, as well as its subsequent production at Brussels . The dress rehearsal of L'Instinct and the first night of La Rivale took place on a 13th, L'Embuscade was accepted on a 13th, and he was decorated with the Legion of Honour, as usual, on a 13th .

HIGH MAGIC 413 " Edmond Rostand-13 letters-was the 13th occupant of seat No . 13 at the Academy ." 14. Curious coincidences have also been observed in connection with the figure 14 . It certainly played a surprising part in the life of Louis XIV, who, the 14th of the name, attained his majority at the age of 14, succeeded to the Throne on a 14th May, saw his predecessor Louis XIII die in 1648 (1 + 6 + 4 + 3 = 14), had his life saved by Turenne at Blindeau in 1652 (1, + 6 + 5 + 2 = 14), began his personal reign in 1661 (1 + 6 + 6 + 1 = 14), signed the Treaty of Dover with England in 1670 (1+6+7 = 14), died in 1715 (1 + 7 + 1 + 5 = 14) at the age of 77 (7 + 7 = 14). This number is also predominant in the life of Henri IV of France, whose name Henri de Bourbon (or Henri de Navarre) has 14 letters, who was born on the 14th December, 1553 (1 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 14) or say 14 centuries and 14 decades after Christ, and died on a 14th of May after having reigned three times 14 years and having lived 4 times 14 years and 14 weeks and 3 times 14 days . Further Jean Chatel, who tried to murder him, wounded him 14 hours after the entrance of the Queen into Saint Denis, she herself having been born on a 14th May. As to Ravaillac, he was executed 14 days after the murder of his King, which murder was committed on the 14th May, 1610 (1.15 x 14 = 1610) in the Rue de la Ferronnerie, the widening of which was ordered by an Edict promulgated on the 14th May, 1544 (1 + 5 + 4 + 4 = 14), that is 4 times 14 years before the event . Finally it was on the 14th March, 1590, that the battle of Ivry was won . What coincidences ! And also what ingenious calculations . From 14 onward . From 14 on, the peculiarities of numbers decrease . But we may point out :15, the symbol of spiritual ascents (the 15th day of the 7th month was venerated) . 16, said to be lucky by Pythagoras (perfect square) . 18 sounds bad to theologians on account of the captivity of Israel under Egon, King of Moab (18 years), and to Kabbalists who call it the son of error and of superstition . 19 is lucky because consisting of two figures (1 and 9) which are both lucky . So also 21 (3 times 7) the number of divinations . Remember the 21 guns of celebrations, obvious reminder of old beliefs . 22 is good . There are 22 Hebrew letters and 22 books in the Old Testament . 28, the Lunar number . 30, Christ began His miracles at the age of 30 . He was sold for 80 pence .

414

THE OCCULT SCIENCES As to the number 40, it is more important and reminds us :That the Jews wandered for 40 years in the wilderness before entering into the Promised Land . That Moses remained 40 days on Mount Sinai, and Elijah 40 days in solitude . That Christ fasted for 40 days in the desert, preached for 40 months, and remained for 40 hours in the tomb . That Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans 40 years after the Ascension of Christ . 50, the sign of the remission of sins. The number of the Holy Ghost. The Law was given to Moses on Sinai 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt . The Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles 50 days after the Resurrection . The number 60 was sacred amongst the Egyptians . 100. Perfection. 1,000. Absolute Perfection, the cube of the figure 10 . We could go on for ever with curiosities relating to numbers. Let us conclude with the following :1 . Correspondences, from the point of view of figures, between the reigns of Louis IX and Louis XVI, to whom his Confessor said at the foot of the scaffold, " Son of Saint-Louis, ascend to Heaven ! " -taking as basis the figure 539 which represents the number of years elapsed between the births of these two Kings . If this number is added to the date of some important event in the life of the former, a similar important event will be found in the life of the latter . For instance :Birth of Saint Louis (23rd April) . . .. .. 1215 539 Birth of Louis XVI (23rd August) .. 1754 Birth of Isabella, sister of Saint Louis 1225 539 Birth of Isabella, sister of Louis XVI .. 1764 Death of the father of Saint Louis Death of the Dauphin, father of Louis XVI

..

1226 539 1765

..

1226 539 1765

..

Beginning of the minority of Saint Louis as King . . Beginning of the minority of Louis XVI as Dauphin

..

..

HIGH MAGIC

Armistice signed between the victorious Saint Louis and Henry III of England Treaty signed,between the victorious Louis XVI and George III of England .. .. .. .. An Eastern Prince visits Saint Louis, being anxious to become a Christian .. An Eastern Prince sends an ambassador to Louis XVI for the same purpose Defeat of Saint Louis, abandoned by all and taken prisoner at Mansourah .. .. Emigration of the Princes . Louis XVI abandoned by all and taken prisoner by the people in October Shepherd Rising-an apostate priest is leader Jacobin Rising-an apostate priest offers his Church to the People . . ..

415 1243 539 1782 1249 539 1788 1250 539 1789

1250 539 1789

2. Observation made by Chateaubriand Death of Charlemagne-31st March, 814W) End of Napoleon's power-31st March, 1814 . 1,000 years to the day. 8. A table has been drawn up, according to tradition, of lucky and unlucky days, which shews :Avoid when transacting business the following days :2, 5, 11, 13, 15, 18, 30 . Prefer the following :1, 8, 7, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28 . III

Some Kabbalistic Practices

We have seen the serious side of the Kabbala, and another side which at first glance is less so. To the latter we will add various practices also based on the mysterious influence of numbers.

A. The Principal Dates of Life

In order to obtain these, add the figures of the year in the way hown in the following example .

416

THE

OCCULT SCIENCES Assume a birth in 1888 . Draw up the following tables :1888 1913 1927 1946 1 1 1 1 8 9 9 9 8 1 2 4 7 8 3 6 1913

1927

1946

1966

1966 1 9 6 6 1988

The dates given by the totals will bring important events . Or rather they denote great periods of changes in accordance with a series of numbers arranged in a certain order . But there are other numerical series, and the first great event of any particular class may be taken as a starting point, such as First Communipn, first love, first artistic, financial or other success, and thus religious, love, artistic, or financial sequences may be drawn up .

B. Modern Kabbalistic Table

A 1

B 2

G

D 4

E 5

C 6

V 7

P 8

Th 9

l&J 10

K 20

L 30

M 40

N 50 .

X 60

0 70

H 280

Q 90

R 100

200 280 S H

T 300

U 400

F or Ph 500

Ch 600

Y 700

W 800

Z 7000

This table, it is said, enables the result of a difference, a lawsuit, a duel, any rivalry to be known at once and beforehand . Placing the numbers corresponding to the value of the letters of the name of the two parties in a column, it is sufficient to add them in order to know the victor . F 500 A 1 P 8 D 4 L 30 O 70 P 8 0 70 L 30 I 10 10 I U 400 N 50 A 1 E 5 C 6 M 40 M 40 R 100 A 1 E 5 E 5 R 100 S 100 S 200 R 100 E 5 881 (won) 619 149 250 (won)

HIGH MAGIC W 800

I L S 0 N

10

30

200 70 50 1160 (won)

H U

280 400

G 3 H 280 E S

5 100 1068

D

E S C

H

A N E L

C L

4 5

E M E N C E A

200 6 280 1 50 5

30

581 (won)

U

6 30

417

5 40 5 50 6 5 1 400 548

aaaa a

C. The Hand of Fatima The Hand of Fathma (or Fatima) was, D 4 it seems, discovered by Cagliostro, in the Castle of Saint Leon where he died in 1795, in an old manuscript which recalled its ancient use in the East and gave its x L M N double oracle as follows :10 20 30 40 P Q 1. The Key of Individual Numbers for 60 60 0 80 the purpose of telling the temperament of 90 Iffl , VIM, "I, a person. V Z J 400 500 600 roo 2. The Key of the Double Zodiac for the purpose of foretelling the future . The method of using it is as follows e 1 . In order to know the character, abilities, temperament of a person, take each of the letters of the name and personal name and put in their place the relative numbers found in the Hand of Fatima . ~i~ h4 Add these up. Thus you will find the individual number of the person . 2 . In order to know the meaning of this number, consult the Table of the Hand, leaving out thousands and splitting up the remaining number into hundreds and units if the whole is not on the table . 3. To find if you will be victorious in a coming struggle, against a rival (in love, in business, etc .), write your Christian name and that of the rival, and find the sum which each makes according to the cipher key of the Double Zodiac . Divide each sum by 9 and find the remaining number in the columns of the special table . You will then know which will win. W~I

r 'Lv

60BONN

92141 ,9

10

418

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Table, for the Hand of Fatima, of Numerical Victories 1 beats 2 beats 3 beats 4 beats 5 beats

1. 2. S. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

3, 1, 2, 1, 2,

2, 4, 5, 3, 4,

7, 9. 6, 8. 7, 9. 6, 8. 7, 9.

6 beats 1, 3, 5, 7. 7 beats 2, 4, 6, 8. 8 beats 1, 3, 5, 7. 9 beats 2, 4, 6, 8. (according to Captain Franlac) .

Table of Numerical Correspondences for the Hand of Fatima .

Passion, ambition, ardour . Destruction, death, catastrophe . Mysticism, dreaming, ethereal love . Daring, wisdom, power . Happiness, wealth, marriage . Perfection, work . Purity of feeling, contemplation . Love of justice, honesty. Imperfections, sorrows, pains, attack. 10 . Fulfilment, right, future happiness . 11 . Numerous faults, difficult success . 12 . Brings luck, fortunate omen . 13 . Barefaced cynicism. 14 . Devotion, even sacrifice . 15 . Cult of the beautiful and the ideal . 16 . Felicity, voluptuousness, love . 17 . Flighty inconstancy . 18 . Incorrigible obstinacy. 19 . Null (as 29, 39, and 49) . 20 . Sadness, sternness . 21 . Brutality, violence. 22. Invention, prudence, mystery . 24. Indifference, egoism . 2.5 . Intelligence, many children . 26. Likes to be useful . 27 . Courage and firmness . 28. Favours, tenderness, love . 29. Null (as 19, 39 and 49) . 30. Marriage, fame. 31 . Ambition and glory . 32. Hymen, chastity . 33. Exemplary behaviour . 34. Suffering. 35. Physical and moral health . 36 . Great genius, vast conceptions . 37 . Gentle virtues, conjugal love . 38. Imperfection, avarice, envy.

39 . 40 . 4T. 42 . 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 60. 70. 73. 75. 77. 80. 81 . 90. 100. 120. 150. 200. 215. 300. 313. 350 . 360. 365. 400. 490. 500. 600.

Null (as 19, 29, 49) . Festivities, pleasures. Without moral or physical worth . Journeys, unhappy and short life . Religious ceremonies, apostolate. Power, pomp . honour . Ideas, numerous children. Country life, abundance, fertility . Long and happy life without cares . Law Courts, judgment, ruin . Null (as 19, 29 and 39) . Prison, then liberty, happiness . Widowhood . Love of science . Loves nature and simplicity. Sensitiveness, affection, charity . Repentance, final grace . Illness, cure, long life. Arts, intellectual culture . No foresight, affliction . Favours, honour, glory . Good husband, keen patriot . Flattery, hypocrisy . Fatal indecision . Constant calamity. Philosophical mind . Clairvoyance, lucidity . Naivety, vain hope for justice . Sociability, many talents . Calculation, self-interest, egoism . Art, love, quick temper . Cloister, fervour, mystery . Election, honour, statue . Victim of envy, success, then catastrophe . 666. Underhand plotting, social downfall . 700. Strength, vigour, health.

HIGH MAGIC 419 800. Dominion, glory, exile . 1095 . Victim of persecution, martyrdom . 900. Brave soldier, cross, decorations . 1260 . Torments, consolation in old age . 1000 . Ambition crowned. 1390 . Physical weakness, moral energy . Example :A man of the name of Jean (Barret) wants to consult the hand of Fatima to know himself, and to find out if in his love for Miss X he will beat his rival Louis. Let us carry out the above processes :J 600 B 2 E 5 A 1 Total 646 + 268 - 914 (individual number). A 1 R 80 N 40 R 80 This number exceeds 100 and is made up of E 5 T 100 900 - Brave and glorious soldier. 14 - Devoted even to sacrifice. 646 268 Translation :-J. Barret is combative, devoted, brave, and will be rewarded . L 10 J 20 49 = 9 = 5 leaving 4. Now 5 beats 4 (since 4 only 8 E 22 beats 1, 3, 6, 8.) 0 68=9 = 7 leaving 5 . U 2 A 13 1 20 N 13 Therefore Jean will beat Louis, which is only S 9 natural having regard to his character . 49

68

IV The Taroc, the Supreme Symbol

The Taroc is simply the ancient Occult Science in Brief . It is its s nthetic summing up . It is used, as we have seen, in the shape of paying cards for the purpose of foretelling the future . But for the Hermetic philosopher, it is above all a subject for deep meditation . The Taroc in fact, we are told by Eudes Picard (in his Synthetic and Practical Manual of the Taroc) reveals the world of Ideas and Principles, and enables us to grasp the laws of the evolution of phenomena. At first sight it amazes by its grotesque images and seems merely strange . Then our surprise, perhaps our amusement, is transformed, and the intelligent man guesses that he is in the presence of a monument of human thought, that behind these leaves of childish appearance something more than imagination is hidden . He looks at them with more care, and little by little the mystery becomes clear . The Pentacle card becomes a mirror in which a complete spiritual construction is reflected . This need for simplification of Universal Knowledge by a kind of

420 THE OCCULT SCIENCES initiatory key is so constant among all nations that it is found 1 in various forms not only in Egypt (the Egyptian Taroc is the best known) but also among the Indians where it is represented by a game of Chess called Tchaturanga composed of four series (elephants, chariots, horses, pawns) which shows how much it is derived from the Taroc (it will be remembered that Taroc also has four groups of figures) ; amongst the moslems of India by the Ghendfigeh composed of 8 series (of 12 cards each) divided into two sections, the superior (crowns, moons, swords, slaves) and the inferior (harps, suns, diplomas, packs) thus showing its derivation ; amongst the Chinese (see description in the book by Count de Gebelin, The Primitive World) ; amongst the Germans, (where the four groups are hearts, bells, leaves and acorns) ; amongst the Gypsies (this is the one explained by Papus and stated by him to be the oldest of all) . At present there are a fairly large number, the best known of which are the Taroc of Etteilla (commented upon by Elie Alta 2 who considers it the best reconstruction of the Egyptian Taroc according to the Book of Thot and which is largely sold), the Taroc of Watillaux, the Italian Taroc, the Besancon, the Marseilles Taroc (the latter three very good according to Papus), finally the Taroc of Oswald Wirth, constructed in accordance with the principles enunciated by the great occultist Eliphas Levi, its symbolism being apparently strictly in conformity with the primitive symbolical Taroc . But what is this last ? What is the true origin of the Taroc ? It is confused and uncertain . Oswald Wirth dates our knowledge of it back to the days of Charles VI of France and of playing cards, but we do not know where the draftsman found his models which correspond so truly to ancient Wisdom . To-day there is a belief that we have here a collective work which goes back to very distant times and is consecrated by a Tradition which is preserved by the Gipsies . This is the opinion of E . Picard :-" The ideas contained in it," he says, " are universal and immutable . They go back to the first needs of the observer tormented by the desire to record by form, number and symbol his dreams concerning the universal mechanism . Like the Iliad it had its Bards who transmitted to us without comment a kind of celestial epic . One characteristic feature of the Taroc is to see how little in the course of the centuries it has fundamentally changed. Any modifications are merely details of design and betoken only the fancy of the artist . This is proved by an examination of the collection of Taroc cards in the National Library . We may therefore

According to Papus, see his Gypsy Taroc . See his Gypsy Taroc. Etteilla is an anagram for Alliette, the real name of this person, a barber by trade, who one day began to study the Taroc and devoted himself to it for thirty years . Though totally unprepared for this occult task, he brought to it a great intuition, and his researches have been of much use to his successors . He lived at the time of the French Revolution.

HIGH MAGIC 421 say that the Taroc has come down to us deformed rather than modified . It is therefore to its esoteric and symbolic side that we must give our attention and direct our research ." In order to understand it thoroughly, it is therefore necessary to have some general knowledge of the Kabbala and of Astrology . Also some knowledge of the esoterism of Numbers . This knowledge would take us far into the domain of demonstration, and we can only give its elements, according to Papus and Alta who have studied it closely . According to Papus, there is said to exist a sacred word which contains the key to all science, the first word of the oral Hebrew kabbalistic tradition,' the word which shines in the centre of the flaming triangle of the 33rd masonic degree of the Scottish Rite, the word which, used in the Sepher Bereschit (the Genesis of Moses), indicates the Godhead, and the elements of which describe the attributes of the latter . The word consists of four Jewish letters :-iod, which represents the Essence, the Principle, the Unity of Self, the End, the Male, the Active ; he, which represents the reaction of the Non-Self on the Ego, therefore the commencement of the division of the Unit, the Binary, the Feminine, the Passive, the Substance ; vau, which is the relation existing between the self and the non-self ; he repeated, that is to say, outside the primordial Trinary, the transition to everything which follows . This curious synthesis is therefore Iod-HC-Vau-H6, which numerically is represented by 10, 5, 6, 5=26-10 representing the Principle of all (which is 1) allied to the Nothing (which is 0) ; 5 being 10 divided by 2 so that this number 10 may be opposed to itself ; 6 being 1 and 5, that is to say the relation of the self and the non-self . It will also be observed that he is in fact the 5th letter of the Jewish alphabet, iod the 10th letter and vau the 6th.e Without lingering over the operations called theosophic reduction and addition, which explain why, kabbalistically, all numbers may be reduced to one of the nine ciphers, let us give at once the curious table which is found in the Formulary of High Magic of Pierre Piobb and which shows the correspondences between Astrology, Numerals, the Leaves of the Taroc and their symbols and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, of which we do not give the shape, but merely their English pronunciation and meaning . ' According to Fabre d'Olivet, the word Kabbala, meaning Tradition, means, that which is received, which comes from elsewhere, which is passed on from hand to hand . a These four letters also correspond to the four symbols of the Taroc. Here is the table, according to Papua :Iod, Rod . The lod men are the Nobility of Intellect (inventors and producers) . Creation . He, Cup. The He men are the Depositories of Truth (scholars, judges, etc .) Reception. Vau, Sword . The Vau men are the Keepers and Defenders of the above . Transformation. He (second), Penny . The men of the second HJ are the People. Transition .

LEr sail OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET WITH PRONUNCIATION AND ENGLISH EQUIVALENT .

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 . 12. 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 .

Aleph Beth Gimel Daleth Ha Vau Zain Heth Teth Jod Kaph Lamed Mem Noun Samech Rain

17 . Pe 18. Tsade 19 . Koph 20. Resh 21 . Shin 22.1 Tau

A B G (hard) D H 0 Z Ch (German) T J K (hard) L M N S (hard) A P Ts Q R SH T

NUMERICAL VALUE .'

USUAL MEANING'

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Man The Mouth The taking Hand The Breast Breath The Eye The Arrow A Field A Roof First Finger Closing hand Extended Arm Woman' A Fruit The Serpent The Place

80 90 100 200 300 400

The The The The The The

Tongue End Axe Head Arrow Thorax

CGRRESPGN' DENCE IN TABOO.

The Magus The Door of the Temple Isis Urania The Cubic Stone The Master of the Arcane The Two Roads Chariot of Osiris Themis Veiled Lamp Sphinx' Lion Sacrifice Scythe Human Mind The Typhoon The Tower struck by Lightning The Star of the Magi Twilight Light The Resurrection The Crown The Crocodile

ZODIACAL OR PLANETARY CORRESPONDENCE.'

SYMBOLICAL CORRESPONDENCE.

The Sun The Moon Earth Jupiter Mercury Virgo Sagittarius Libra Neptune Capricorn Leo Uranus Saturn Aquarius Mars Ram

Will-power. Science Action Fulfilment Inspiration Trial Victory Balance Prudence Wealth Strength Violent Death Transformation Initiative Fate Ruin

Venus Cancer Gemini Pisces Taurus Scorpio

Hope Disappointment Happiness Rebirth Atonement Reward

' There are 22 major leaves in the Taroc, the same number as the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet . • Compare this number with the Kabbalistic receipt given previously . ' This letter M begins all the English and foreign words meaning Mother (Mutter, Mere, etc .) • According to Papus . • This moving symbolism of the Sphinx will be noticed :-the Iod, the Principle, the great Unknown, and also the first finger, the finger which points to Truth . • According to Christian. And since we mention the name of the author of the History of Magic, let us give his synthesis of the major arcana by following them one by one :-Human Will enlightened by Science and shewn in Action creates Fulfilment through a power which it uses according to Inspiration (good or bad) . Having been victorious over a Trial it takes possession by its Pictory of the work which it has created, and maintaining its Balance with Prudence, it dominates the oscillations of Luck . The Course of Time is measured by Ruing : but, beyond these ruins we see the light of Hope or Disappointment . Man aspires to Happiness, but this latter is only found beyond the Tomb and the Rebirth following it, which, according to whether he was good or bad, brings him Reward and Atonement . This synthesis is remarkable, and explains why the last two leaves may be interchanged .

HIGH MAGIC 423 A complete study of the Taroc would require a fat volume, especially as so many books have been written about it, each showing slight differences of interpretation, according to the particular study and the turn of mind of the writer. We will merely sum up, in accordance with three well known books, those of Papus, Elie Alta and Eudes Picard, the meaning of the leaves or arcana in so far as concerns the essential part remaining in the diversity of these distinguished occultists . Major Leaves (or Major Arcana) First of all let us say that the whole of these 22 leaves refer to the Principles, the Causes, and connect the sidereal world, the Number, the Letter, the evolution of Man. Each is presented under a triple aspect, symbolical, numerical (and alphabetical) and astrological . Number and Letter have their correspondence in the Hebrew alphabet, as we have seen . The name of the leaf gives its symbol, the table below shows its astral character . Let us see what each of these pictures has to say to us. We should add that the pictures often vary slightly in detail . 1 . The Juggler . This is the Questioner . It is Man, a young man, with curly hair, smiling . What seems to be his hat is in reality ahalo like a horizontal 8, the sign of universal life . He is standing on the ground where a leaf symbolises Nature . Before him is a table on which we see three of the symbols of the Taroc :-a sword (struggle), pence (gains), a cup (passion) . In his hand is the wand of the Magician, of the spiritual conjurer . This hand is raised towards the sky and its nobilities, whereas the other droops towards the earth and its pleasures . The number characterising this first leaf is 1 . It is the Principle of Unity. Its letter is the aleph which hieroglyphically represents Man, the Microcosm . Its astrological meaning is the Sun, its psychological meaning Will-power . The Juggler is the man who wants to create, like God, on the plane which is assigned to him . We could, with Papus, with Ldvi, with Alta and others, go more Every deeply into possible explanations of this picture and others . commentator has attempted it . Let us not forget that the Taroc is a marvellous incentive to thought . Everyone therefore has the right to extract his own teaching from each arcanum, provided he remains within the general and traditional scope . Having said this, we will now more briefly give a sketch of the remaining 21 major leaves or arcana. 2. The Popess. The wife of the Questioner, sitting between two A columns, a book in her lap, and slightly covered by her veil . tiara on her head-Juno, Isis, etc . Great Priestess with the attributes of science and the priesthood . Here we have the sanctuary (columns) of the Gnosis, the Kabbala, the Binary . For 2 is the fatidic number

424

THE

OCCULT

SCIENCES TWENTY-TWO MAJOR LEAVES .

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HIGH MAGIC ABCANA OF TABOO.

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425

426 THE OCCULT SCIENCES of opposition, of duality, the bringer of evil . The letter of the leaf is the second of the alphabet, the beth which has as its symbol the mouth, the sacred dwelling of the Word, whence came Teaching, the Law, Occult Knowledge . Number and letter are also the sign of the Moon, the reflection of the Sun as Woman is the reflection of Man . It also reminds of the union of the male and the female, reminds generally of Science . 3. The Empress. A winged woman enthroned, the orb of the world on the end of her sceptre . On her shield is the Eagle, the symbol of the soul and of life . She represents the Ternary, fertility, generation, the mighty balance between active Intellect and absolute Wisdom, germination, incubation, fermentation, the mystery of attraction . Number-3, Trinity, Triangle . Letterghimel . Vital Mystery. Star-Venus, productive beauty . General meaning-action . 4 . The Emperor. A bearded Prince seated in profile on a throne, also having an eagle on his shield . His legs are crossed, his head covered with an iron helmet, in his hand the sceptre symbolic of generation. Look at him well and you will see that his attitude reproduces the 4 which is the hieroglyph of Jupiter, and the star of the 4th leaf is in truth Jupiter . This number 4 denotes the universal quaternary (4 elements, etc .) The number of the cube, the emblem of firmness, of solidity . Its letter is the daleth which means thorax, or better breast, nourishing breast . In short, the general meaning is Fulfilment. 5. The Pope. The great High priest, the Master of the Arcana, seated between the pillars of Hermes and of Solomon, he makes the esoteric gesture (two fingers raised) and leans on the great cross with three arms . Two lesser ministers are kneeling before him . He denotes and communicates inspiration ; besides 5 is the figure of faith, of quintessence, of the pentagram of the Sages of the Nile, of sensory life (the five senses.). Letter he, the breath . Star, Mercury . Meaning, Inspiration . According to Papus leaf 5 corresponds to leaf 2, is its complement, as in fact each leaf has as complement the leaf the number of which together with its own makes 7 . Thus leaf 4 corresponds to leaf 3, leaf 6 to 1 and reciprocally . 6. The Lover. Here we have our Juggler of No. I coming back, beardless, bareheaded, standing at the crossing of two roads . Two women beside him, one wearing a circlet of gold round her forehead, the other with her hair loose . Thus he hesitates between Vice and Virtue, whence the other name of this leaf, the Two Roads. Above the group Love draws his Bow and hides the sun of Truth .

HIGH MAGIC 427 Now the Hebrew vau represents the Eye, the eye which looks at what the undecided man will do . Two meanings are attached to leaf 6 :-Union (figure 6) or Trial . In any case it denotes the antagonism of the forces of good and evil, of Liberty and Necessity, as well as the balance between Heaven and Earth, embraces, love . Planetary sign-Virgo . 7 . The Chariot . Cubic car with four columns surmounted by an awning in which is seated a crowned conqueror holding a sceptre, and drawn by two sphinxes . Between them on the car appears the Indian lingam surmounted by the flying globe of the Egyptians . Number, 7. Letter, zain, the sound of the whistling of the arrow, reminding of fighting and victory . Zodiacal sign, Gemini . The Victor has conquered the four elements . According to Alta this idea of victory will be seen again in the 7 of rods which indicates authority in the word, the 7 of cups being authority in the sentiment, the 7 of swords being authority in life and the 7 of pence being authority in wealth . In short all the commentators are in complete agreement here. Leaf 7-Victory . 8. Justice . Themis with her sword and her balance . Therefore naturally the sidereal sign is Libra . The letter is heth which signifies and symbolises the fields (elementary labour) . This is why Etteilla translated it, visit to the country . But it would be better to say Continued effort produces balance . And thus we find our normal meaning again . 8 is the number of reactionary balance, of justice . According to Papus, there is in this second septenary of arcana, as in the first, a correspondence between leaves 7 and 12, 8 and 11, 9 and 10, all adding up to 19 . 9. The Hermit . Wrapped in a big cloak . He has his staff to support him, his lantern to give him light . He is the son of the star Neptune, of the number 9 and of the letter teth (roof, that is to say protection, safety) . Others give him Leo as his zodiacal sign, Neptune being unknown in antiquity . In any case the meaning is clear :See and be silent . A staff to defend himself. The cloak also gives protection . Here is the true symbol of the Wise man . The unanimous meaning given to the leaf of the Hermit is Prudence . 10 . The Wheel of Fortune . Iod, the 10th letter of the Jewish alphabet, is the letter of the first finger, the finger of command, hence conception of spiritual duration, then of the eternity of time . Hence the Wheel which ever turns . Here a dog goes up on one side, a monkey comes down the other . At the top a poised sphinx holding the sword in its lion's claws . We are under the sign of Capricorn . It is Life which turns, there is movement in everything . He who rises runs

428 THE OCCULT SCIENCES the danger of falling, he who falls has the hope of rising-the fate of all .

With us iod is i, the letter found in the majority of the words relating to water, such as humid, fluid, liquid . Now the 10th hour in China shows the moment when the cows are milked and is represented by an urn, which symbol has been preserved in Hebrew . According to Papus leaf 10 represents the reflection of the will, the Hindu Karma (necessity-see Third Part), the magic power which is the true wealth . General meaning-Wealth . 11 . Strength. The 11th letter is caph (the hand half closed in the act of taking, of grasping) . Hence the idea of strength . Also of vitality. Astrologically-Leo. The picture is a woman crowned, like the Juggler, with the horizontal 8 of vitality . Quietly and without effort she shuts the jaws of a maddened lion . Meaning-Strength . 12. The Hanged Man . He is tied by one foot to a gibbet in the shape of a Hebrew tau (a branch between two trees each having six branches cut off), head downwards, hands tied behind him . It represents a violent death, martyrdom, atonement, he who dies for an idea, also public example, discipline . Astral sign-Uranus . The 12th letter is lamed, symbolised by an arm stretching forth, or a wing, both signs of expansion . The Chaldean lamed on the other hand is translated by discipline . According to Eli Alta the symbol of the hanged man stands for laws which are inescapable and pass our understanding. Papus sees in leaves 9, 10, 11 and 12 the origin of the occult quaternary, Be silent (Prudence), Will (magic power or wealth), Dare (courage, leaf 11), Know (the experience of leaf 12, the hanged man reminding of the Sun at the summit of its course through the 12 signs of the Zodiac, 6 on each side, and beginning to descend) . He sees here the end of the 2nd septenary . And according to general opinion, Sacrifice is the general meaning of leaf 12, after which comes the idea of end, of death . 13. Death. The traditional representation of the skeleton cutting down heads, hands and feet. Not only, says Alta, does everything die physically, but everything that man does against man also dies . Obviously the number of such a leaf had to be 13, and its planet Saturn . Papus explains the place of each arcanum in the sequence by its number . It would be too long to reproduce this explanation here, but by way of example we give his method for the arcanum of death . He points out :-Arcanum 13 is explained by 10 (Wealth) and 16 _ 26 = 13 16 (Destruction) in the middle of which it stands 10 - C 2 2 13 is thus between iod the principle of creation and hairs the principle

HIGH MAGIC 429 of destruction. Hence the idea of universal transforming principle . Further, 13 comp letes 18 as 5 completes 2 and as 12 completes 7 . And we have the following table :13 18 Death is completed by the Moon 13+18=31 17 14 Temperance is completed by the Stars 14+17=31 16 15 The Devil is completed by Destruction. 15+16=31 Thus 13 is placed between the Invisible and the Visible . It is the link of Nature through which all influences act from one world to the other. Meaning :1 . The Transforming God-the universal transforming principle . 2. The Negation of Fulfilment-Death . 3. The creative astral light . The universal balancing plastic Force . Finally the letter mem indicates woman, the companion of man . It is the maternal and female sign personified, the local and plastic sign of the passive image . This example shows to what thoughts the Taroc may lead . 14. Temperance . The letter noun denotes the seed of the female, the fruit of life, and through this the proceeds of any combination, the result of forces (Papus) . The figure 14 is Christ sacrified, the son of Mary (Alta) . Astral sign-Aquarius . The picture represents an angel with the sign of the sun on his forehead, pouring from one cup into the other the two essences of the elixir of life. Commentators have seen in this the symbol of the seasons and the changes of life (Eliphas Levi), the perpetual movement of life, the combination of ideas and forces (Christian), the harmony of mixtures (Papus), the metamorphoses (Bourgeat) . General meaningInitiative. 15. The Devil. Picard describes it as the goat of Mendes or the Baphomet of the Temple with its pantheistic attributes . More simply let us say that the subject of this leaf is the usual Devil of the cosmogonies, bearded and horned, resembling in some respects the representation of the Juggler . But. here the motions of the hands are in the contrary direction . Instead of the Magician's wand the Devil has the lighted torch . The hieroglyph of the letter samech

430 THE OCCULT SCIENCES is the serpent (it is the zain or arrow in circular motion) which has always been the symbol of the circle, hence of Fate . This is why the commentators have respected this thought of predestination, major force, evil genius, and have all given to arcanum 15 the general meaning of Fate. 16. The Madhouse . It is also called the Tower struck by Lightning, for we see a tower having its upper part carried off by the celestial fire, and two persons falling off it. Number 70 . Letter hain . Astral sign, the Ram . The hain or gnain materialises the vau. It is the Material sense . The figure of one of the two falling victims reproduces in rough outline the letter. It is the first leaf, observes Papus, where we find a material construction. Symbols, the fall of Adam, the punishment of pride, the failure of the Mind . The balance is upset . General meaningRuin . 17. The Star. Nude young woman pouring on the dry soil the vital fluid of two urns, one of gold, the other of silver . On her head shines the Eight-pointed Star surrounded by seven stars . On a tree near by a bird prepares for flight . Hebrew letter phe or pe, thought, or beth (mouth), in its wider sense Tongue, hence Word . Here we have the Word in action (pouring out of the fluids) and near by the symbol of the winged soul . This leaf compensates for good the evil influence of the last-mentioned leaf-spiritual rising after material downfall . The fault is forgiven . General meaning-Hope . 18. The Moon. Quite a picture :-The Moon in the sky, the falling dew, two dogs howling, two towers, a crab rising from the bottom of the water. A path with drops of blood losing itself towards the horizon. The Crab denotes the sign of the Zodiac of Cancer, the Moon a night filled with the howlings of the enemies of man and with dread (the bloodstains on the road) . Bloody dew, or golden tears shed by Phoebe ? The Hebrew tsade represents the end . Hence the towers represent the boundaries, no doubt the boundaries of the human mind. Hence its general meaning-Disappointment. 19. The Sun. The star of day sheds its rays on two child friends in a fortified spot . It is the physical father of human beings lighting society, the towns, civilisation . The Hebrew koph denotes the axe, defence, effort, material, existence. Here we have no longer the pale light of Selene, but the brilliant fire of Phoebus.

HIGH MAGIC 431 The mind which just now was asleep, frightened, now awakens and seeks happiness. See how the leaves follow each other. The zodiacal sign is obviously Gemini . General meaningHappiness . 20. Judgment . The dead rise up from their graves at the sound of the trumpet of the Archangel. These dead are a man, a woman and a child-the human ternary . Resch is the head, the sign of motion . Awakening, surprise, and above all Rebirth. 21. The Fool-and 22. The World. Some place the one before the other, and some write 0 instead of 22 . Picard and Etteilla place the World before the Fool, and see in it Kether or the kabbalistic crown between the four elements of a sphinx divided into four parts, and inside the crown Truth holding a magic wand in each hand . Eliphas Levi sees here the summing up of the whole, the highest degree of initiation ; Papus sees success ; Picard gives as the general meaning-Reward . Afterwards as leaf 0 comes the Fool, a tramp carrying in his sack his ridicules and his vices ; a dog follows and bites him . MeaningAtonement . Elie Alta makes the Fool leaf 0-21 and the World leaf 22, as also does Papus. Of course the pictures are the same as the preceding. In our opinion this order is more logical . Papus, whom we follow here, calls arcanum 21 Mate (checkmate) and not the Fool, although he preserves the picture of the fool with torn clothes, going carelessly towards a precipice where a crocodile waits to devour him. It is the picture, he says, of the condition to which we are led by passions which we are unable to rule, the passion of the flesh and its satisfaction, of relative duration, of instinct, the animal sign . The letter shin was the sign of relative duration . On the other hand than (the breast) is the sign of signs, the sign of perfection . Its proper place is therefore the last leaf, representing the macrocosm and the microcosm, the whole creation . The four elements of the divided sphinx are :Rod-iod-fire-Man . Cup-he-water-Lion. Sword-vau-earth-Bull . Circle or penny-second he -air-Eagle .' General meaning according to Papus-Success, the Absolute, Fulfilment, Triumph . 1 Accordu ' ~g to Picard, the Cups correspond to air, the Sceptres or Rods to Fire, the Swords to Water, the Pence to Earth.

432

THE OCCULT SCIENCES This completes the cycle of the major arcana . It opens with the Juggler and closes on the World, after Man has passed through stages where he develops from his liberty in face of the elements which are at his disposal, until his final reward where he shines in the centre of a crown. We will now pass on to the minor arcana . Their key, their connection is known . Each commentator has striven after abstruse explanation . Some are in favour of the Kabbalism of Papus, others prefer the mythological explanation, others again wish to assimilate them with the ordinary playing cards . Alta has his own interpretation, following Etteilla on whom he comments, and Count de Gibelin to some extent laughs at the general fancy . Like a good pupil we have adopted-for after all we must take one side or the other-the method of Eudes Picard which was recommended at a course of lectures on Hermetism which we attended . Anyone requiring more detail will be able to purchase his book (Synthetic and Practical Manual of

the Taroc) .

In the opinion, then, of the present writer, the major leaves represent the Causes, the minor leaves the Effects . From the upper plane of the former we pass to the lower plane of the latter, from the Celestial to the Terrestrial . As is well known, the 56 minor leaves are divided into four groups of 14, each group going from 1 to 10 and having four cards representing the human, social, hierarchical element . It may also be said that they are divided into two groups of 28, one straight (swords and sceptres) the other curved (cups and pence), the one active, the other passive . The following sums up the teaching of each group :-

Sceptres (or Rods)

Ace.-A hand holds a sceptre surmounted with an orb, the whole surrounded by flames . 1 Idea of action, of will, of command . Sign-Letter, Command, Edict, Decree . Two.-They are crossed above a moderate fire transforming damp into steam . In the middle of the figure some ears of corn, at the top grapes . Sign-Co-operation, alliance of forces for the purpose of production . ' For the purpose of showing the diversity of the Taroc packs, we illustrate some specimens

from the Taroc of Etteilla, whereas our text corresponds to the engravings used by Eudes Picard . We repeat our regret that all occultists should not be agreed on the exact illustrations to be adopted .

433

HIGH MAGIC

TYPES OF SOME MINOR LEAVES TAKEN FROM THE TAROC OF ETTEILLA

O0 00

THE PENCE

THE SWORDS .

n

Tam Cups

V

I

THE SOFPTRES .,

v

434

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Three.-They are arranged in a triangle . In the centre the caduceus. At the top a dog's head . Around hazelnut trees. All these are attributes of Mercury. Hence :Sign-The start of a life devoted to intellectual or commercial activity . Four .-Arranged in a square supported by a lion . Eats of corn in the centre . Strength and Fertility. Sign-Intellectual fulfilment . Five.-Arranged in flaming pentagram (great moral activity) . Sign-Ambition, Irritability. Six.-Arranged in two opposing triangles, one point towards the sky, one towards the earth . Again ears of corn, but their roots are gnawed by ghosts, whilst on the horizon shines the rising sun . Sign-Laziness and work alternating. Seven.-Four set in a square and three in a triangle above . The four elements within the square . The risen sun within the triangle . Victory of mind over matter. Sign-Invention . Eight.-They are set in a star ; flames at the bottom of the picture, smoke at the top . Balance . Sign-Poise . Surroundings favourable to life . The zone of exchanges. Commercial transactions . Nine.-Four set in a square below 5 set in pentagram . Within the square a lamp engraved with the sign of fire . Above flames . Signs-Prudence and foresight, experience and lucky speculations, a period of rest from action . Ten.-Set in a flaming star . Signs-Excessive activity . Work of genius. Harvests and travel . Squire.-Kneeling down, he plants a sceptre into the ground not far away from a wood fire.0 Sign of dependence, and also of youth, as is the case with the other three squires of the Taroc . Sign-Love of home, or youth having subordinate employment with an influential person . Knight .-Galloping in the fire . On the right a ram, the first sign of the triangle of fire. At the bottom a helmet (as in the three other leaves of knights of cups, swords, pence) . Signs-Adult and unmarried-artist, actor, writer, stockbroker getting known early .

HIGH MAGIC 435 Queen.-She holds a flaming sceptre, standing on an arrow (sagittarius, second sign of fire) . Sign-Educated active artistic woman, or wife of scientist, artist or business man. King .-Standing on a lion in the midst of flames, a sceptre in his hand, before a railing bearing the attributes of fire . Sign-Genius or great talent in all branches of activity .

The Pence (or Circles)

Ace.-A rooted round penny . Elementary correspondence the Earth. SignMoney looked at as representative of matter . Two.-One rooted in the earth, with the effigies of the Earth and the Moon, the other in the air with the effigy of the Sun . It is the twofold idea of absorption and emancipation by means of gold, the law of exchanges . Sign-Contract or business association . Three.-Two buried in the soil (bearing roots and ghosts) with the double effigy of Capricorn and Taurus . One above under the influence of Mercury, the sign of successful effort . Sign-An undertaking beginning to bring profit. Four.-Surrounded by roots, in the midst of the picture the earth . Sign-Fortune made, daughter to be born, underground animals and cryptogamous plants . Five .-They are round a pentagram and branches intertwined . Five ants are engraved on the pentagram ; reason enslaving wealth . Sign-Economy or avarice . Six.-Two interlaced triangles with pence at the points ; but half the picture is underground, the other above ; the first bears the symbols of Capricorn, the second the symbols of the three theological virtues (faith-cross ; hope-anchor ; charity-heart) . Good and Evil in conflict. Signs-Avarice and charity alternating . Bad or good use of money. Seven.-Four pence in a square underground, three in a triangle above ; the whole surrounded by a tree which at the top has branches with leaves . The seven planets engraved on the seven circles . Sign-Charity. Eight .-Placed on the eight points of a star, four below ground, four above . Equality . Signs-Fair division of property . Legacy. Girl. Minerals.

436

THE OCCULT SCIENCES Nine.-Four in a square below ground and interlaced with branches . Five in a pentagram in the air surrounded with leaves . Profitable investment of money . Sign-Purchase of landed property . Exploitation of mine . Grandmother. Ten.-In a circle, half underground where vegetation is busy . Evolution of matter . Signs-Gains and losses of money, especially by gambling . Gifts. Treasures found. Squire .-Balanced on a disc rolling between two stiff small trees . Unjustified ambitions in money matters . Signs-Domestics and thieves . Knight.-He moves bareheaded (his helmet has fallen off) between branches covered with young leaves . Head of Taurus, the first sign of the triangle of the Earth ; below this helmets . Ambitious, wanting to possess quickly and much . His helmet has fallen off, and his reason no longer has a shield . Signs-Gamblers, croupiers, fortune hunters, exploiters of women . Queen.-A penny above her . A balcony behind . Woman skilful in getting rich . Sign-Courtesan or new-rich . King.-Is seated on a throne ornamented with two Capricorn heads, at the summit of a rock, a sceptre in one hand, a penny in the other. The power of gold which is self-sufficient and has been obtained at the price of desolation . Sign-The new-rich .

The Cups

Ace:Cup engraved with the signs of the Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) containing a miniature castle . Above a butterfly flying away. This indicates the house (and the family) moved by confused, passions, with the aerial soul planing above . Sign-The family, the home . Two .-They are in the midst of a crown of roses (the flower of Venus) the symbol of a beneficent binary (sun active in one, moon passive in the other) . Tendency to the union of two magnetic principles . Sign-Prospect of sentimental union. Three.-Set in triangle with an egg in the middle (shewn in germ), a butterfly above and flowers (the awakening of Nature) . It is the beginning of the evolution of love . Sign-Pregnancy .

HIGH MAGIC 437 Four. Set quadrilaterally, two vertically, two horizontally . In the centre, the eagle breaks the egg. Above-Gemini . At the sidesears of corn. Five.-Set on the sides of a pentagram . All around, flowers, birds and butterflies . Wisdom and Will-power rule feeling . In the centre an owl betokens thought. Sign-Renunciation . Discernment . Six.-Set in two opposing triangles and again with birds, flowers and butterflies . Three cups head upwards, three head downwards . The binary producing the ternary . Reminds of major arcanum 6 . Hence, indecision in love affair . Sign-Scruples, indecision of heart about a marriage . Seven .-Four at bottom set in square, three at top set in triangle . Flowers in full bloom . Sign-Fortunate solution of material questions interfering with love plans. Eight .-Eight cups consisting of butterflies' wings and set in a star . Balance, the age of reason . Sign-Love returned . A boy of seven. Nine.-Four set in a square and five in a pentagram . A butterfly and flowers . Anxiety . Sign-Respect for family traditions and principles . Grandfather. Ten.-Arranged in a circle and separated by flowers. The perfection of sentiment . Sign-Friends. Squire.-He is kneeling between two vases of flowers, and turning towards one of them, he smells it . It is the youth the slave of the first attractions of love. Trouble at the beginning of the connection . Sign-Young man tormented by love. Knight.-He is over a cup decorated with flowers . Above Gemini (first sign of the triangle of Air) . Conception of conquest and of victory in love . Sign-The seducer. Queen.-She holds a cup out of which flies a butterfly (the soul) . Below a cup held by two eagles and in front the sign of Libra (the second of the triangles of Air) . Sign-The Wife fulfilled, the Mother . King.-He has a pickaxe in one hand, in the other a sceptre with a butterfly, before him a cup standing on a pedestal from which escape four streamlets of water.

438

THE OCCULT SCIENCES

Ace.-A sword

The Swords

which a hand plunges straight into the water where it pierces a crab . In the sky the crescent of the Moon . Elementary correspondence-Water . Sign-Struggle. Two .--Set at angles in opposing directions . The one touches with its point the stormy sky, the other the bottom of a turbulent sea. Antagonism between water and fire, between opposing forces. Sign-Break, duel . Three.-Set in triangle in disturbed water . The two swords at the side drive with their points a fish on its back (therefore dead) . Three leaves of . nenuphar fall into the bottom of the water . Sign-Perverted instincts . Morbid condition . Four.-Set in a cross, the points meeting in water surrounded by luminous crescents . Signs of Scorpio round the points, of Cancer at the top . Fulfilment of evil . Sign-Ill event (illness or murderous attack) . Five.-In a pentagram on a disturbed sea . Above, the eye of God . Sign-Remorse, call of conscience . Six.-Set in two opposing triangles, the point of one in the air, the point of the other under water. In the air two rams' heads ; under the water the crab . Struggle between servitude and enfranchisement . Sign-Dependence. Doubtful condition of health . Seven.-Four in a square in the water, and three in a triangle, where the cold Moon, the mistress of the night, looks at the submerged Sun . Domination of darkness over light . Sign-Theft, betrayal . Eight.-In a star, two swords being on the water level, three below, three above . Balance . Sign-Condemning Justice. Nine.-Four in a submerged square . Five in pentacle in the air with leaves of nenuphar. Two fishes seem to try to leap out of their element-the attraction of Evil. Sign-Hatred, envy, intoxication, decrepitude . Ten.-In circle, five above the water, five in the water . The Moon in its four phases . This leaf tells the various forms of Evil and of the menaces of Destiny . Sign-Enemies and illnesses . Squire.-Standing on a draught board at the water side, spying . Sign-Night prowlers and soldiers.

HIGH MAGIC 439 Knight .-His horse swims in midstream. Helmet and Scorpio above him . Signs-Adventurers, fanatics, subordinary chiefs, advocates, officials at the law courts, rebels . Queen .-Standing on the Crescent of the Moon floating on the water . The sign of Cancer in the air . The symbol of the daring woman armed with the sword of struggle . Sign-The plotter. King.* The same position as the Queen on the Crescent Moon floating in mid-river. The sword touches two fishes . It is a Jupiterian King . Sign-Officers, priests and magistrates . Once in possession of the Key, the Taroc, this formidable Summary of Knowledge and of Fate, may be applied to everything relating to Man, as Papus has shown in his Gipsy Taroc ; but we are unable to follow the Magician through his explanations which, as he himself says on the red cover of his book, are only intended for the initiate . All we will say is that by the aid of the Taroc we first of all find symbolically the threefold theogonic, androgonic and cosmogonic theory of the ancient Magi . M . Charles Barlet has shown how in the major arcana of the Taroc is found the double current of the progressive Materialisation or Involution of the God-Mind, and the progressive redivinisation or evolution of Matter (see Third Part) which is the basis of Theosophy. F. G. Lacuna in Harmonies of the Being Expressed in Numbers, and Wronski in Apodictics, have arrived at similar conclusions, namely that all the ancient theogonies are in agreement in their first principles. The Taroc also explains Androgony or the theory of Man who, by analogy, becomes a creator on the Earth (as is taught by the minor arcana), and whose Body comes from the Universe, his Soul from the astral plane, his Mind from God himself. Finally the Taroc is a Cosmogony and reminds us that the Universe is the result of the participation of the Human in the creative acts of the Divine . Jacob Boehmen and Claude de Saint Martin have thoroughly dealt with this point . This is not all . The Taroe may also be studied from the astronomic point of view, for in it we find the four seasons, the twelve months (or signs of the Zodiac), the thirty-six decani and the seven planets . Christian, Ely Star, Oswald Wirth have formulated extraordinary astrological theories, the first in his History of Magic, the second in his Mysteries of the Horoscope of which we have already spoken . Wirth has drawn up a table of the correspondences of the major arcana with

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the principal constellations of the Zodiac and pentacles too complicated to be dealt with here . There is the Taroc of initiation with which Ch . Barlet has dealt at length, and which according to him contains the secret of Theosophy, the why and wherefore of the combination of Force and Matter, the union into one whole of Religion, Philosophy, Wisdom and Science . There is the Taroc of the Kabbala, dealt with by Etteilla according to the Book of Thot (which is the Egyptian Taroc, also explained by Stanislas de Guaita, and based on Numbers) . And finally there is the Taroc of divination, with the elements of which we have dealt in our chapter of Cartomancy . In these circumstances it is easily understood that the Taroc has excited an intense interest among many . The following is a list of its main students :Raymond Lullius (1235-1315), the occultist and alchemist, whose doctrine called the Ars Magna is founded on the use of the Taroc . Jerome Cardon (1501-1576), professor of mathematics and of medicine, whose Treatise on Subtlety is based on the keys of the Taroc . Guillaume Postel (1510-1581) : The Key to Hidden Things . Count de Gebelin (1725-1784) : The Primitive World (key to the Egyptian Taroc) . Etteilla (alias Alliette), the renewer of the Taroc pack and of its kabbalistic explanation . Claude de Saint Martin, called the Unknown Philosopher (17431808) the disciple of Boehmen and Pasqualis, the founder of the Martinist orders. J. A . Vaillant who spent many long years among the Gipsies and verbally received their traditions which he transcribed in his Roms, his Bible of the Gipsies, his Magic Key to Fiction and Fact . Christian, the librarian of the Arsenal . See The Red Man of the Tuileries (1854) . Eliphas Levi in his Dogma and Ritual of High Magic (1861) based on the Taroc . Stanislas de Gualta, the learned Kabbalist : On the Threshold of Mystery, The Serpent of Genesis . And in our own day Peladan, Barlet, Wirth, Ely Star, Blavatsky, Papus, Charles de Sivry, Elie Alta, Eudes Picard, Paul Jagot, etc ., etc. Those who, with the help of these writers, desire to go more deeply into the old Hermetic Wisdom will find in it great profit, and above all an admirable mental exercise . It will easily be understood that we were not able to deal more at length with this supreme and subtle science of Olden Times in this Encyclopaedia which only intends to arouse interest and respect for it .

THIRD PART THE METAPSYCHICAL SCIENCES We are firmly convinced that, intermixed with the known and described force-e, there are forces which . we do not know ; that a mechanical, simple, popular explanation is not sufficient to interpret everything that takes place around us ; in one word, that there are occult psychical phenomena, and if we say " occult " we use a word which simply means unknown .

PROFESSOR CHARLES RTCHET .

CHAPTER I FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM I Magnetism WE call Metapsychical Sciences those sciences which have as their subject not the ordinary human faculties studied in treatises on Psychology and other classical manuals, but the extraordinary Faculties of the soul (as to which official Science makes reservations, though with much less obstinacy than on the subject of the Arts of Divination and Magic of which we have previously spoken), and also the modifications which the soul undergoes owing to peculiar conditions, the strange forces which lie hidden in it, the revelations which numerous and to say the least surprising experiments have brought us, the deductions, finally, which may be drawn from these supernormal facts, the most daring of which forms the basis of Spiritualism and Theosophy. We intended at first to divide this part into different chapters dealing with magnetism, hypnotism, suggestion, clairvoyance, with mediumship, etc . But these various phenomena are so linked together that we have decided to make no divisions, but to sum up into one whole an enormous amount of matter which is dealt with in detail in a mass of specialised books . Our main object has been to deal clearly with a vast and diversified subject, which is sometimes difficult, but always of absorbing interest and able to lead to endless discussion. Further, the character and scope of this volume does not allow of too much detail . We shall be happy if, after having perused these pages, our readers no longer smile at these problems which have been too much neglected or foolishly despised, and if some of them, having acquired a taste for them, wish to go farther in their initiation ; right at the start I promise them, not the mental exhaustion which is so often threatened to the seeker in order to frighten him off, but a deep joy at their intellectual and moral development, a serenity which is not the least of the rewards of such studies, and finally peace of conscience and of heart . . 443 .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES Let us first of all speak of Magnetism, which gives us a very solid starting point, right in the midst of elementary physics, without even the shadow of denial . The word comes from the Greek Magnes, magnet. Everyone knows that the natural magnet is a peculiar ferruginous stone (a natural iron oxyde) which has the power of attracting certain metals, and that if an ordinary steel bar is rubbed with this stone, the same power is transmitted to such bar ; in the same way magnetisation may be carried out by means of an electric current . The word magnetism is applied to everything which concerns or reminds of this peculiar property of producing an attraction ; but the meaning of the original term which indicated mineral magnetism only has been very much extended . However this may be, it has been observed that there is a terrestrial magnetism, which acts on a magnetised needle and turns it towards the North (in the direction of the Polar Star) . There is also an animal magnetism, that for instance of the fascinating eye of the serpent . Finally there is a human magnetism, which enables one person to influence another, and which in its simplest form is instinctive sympathy ; but this power can have more important results, such as putting a subject to sleep, capturing his will, curing him from certain ills, etc . And if there is a mineral magnetism, a terrestrial magnetism, a human magnetism, have we not the right to assume that there must also be a universal magnetism? 1 If our planet is magnetic, why should not the other celestial bodies also be magnetic ? This astral magnetism is in fact a fresh proof which might have found a place in the chapter in which we spoke of the old and admirable science known as Astrology . Magnetism was known in antiquity for the simple reason that hyperpsychical phenomena have always existed . They formed the experimental part of the knowledge of the Magi of Chaldea, the Brahmins of India, the Priests of Egypt, etc ., who were sorcerer-physicians at the same time as Judge-Priests . We have seen that they transmitted this knowledge secretly, and in this they were right, for if exercised lightly by inefficient or criminal persons it may entail peril, excess, even crime. We have here definite but formidable powers . Magnetism seems already to have been used in olden times from the curative point of view . Sick persons came in crowds to be treated either in the waking state or during hypnotic sleep in the temple of Isis, the temple of Serapis, in Alexandria, in Memphis, etc . Apollonius of Tyana cured epilepsy, and Asclepiades of Prusa frenzy . Hippocrates diagnosed by somnambulism . The pythonesses, the Sibyls, the Oracle ' Not to be confounded with the law of universal attraction formulated by Newton .

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 445 of Delphis, etc., must have been somnambulists, for the surviving descriptions of the initiation of these priestesses and of their rites lead us to this opinion . We recognise the gesture of the laying on of hands in some antique statuettes . The Druidesses also must have practised clairvoyance and many other matters which they deemed miraculous . It is even thought that our great human ancestors' utilised forms of energy which as yet we have not rediscovered . It is probable that initiates like Moses understood these secrets thoroughly, that Christ was a mighty magnetiser, by which we do not mean that he was merely that . This part of the occult sciences, whilst surviving in Asia, suffered a great eclipse in Europe during the period of the Barbaric Invasions, especially after the burning of the Library of Alexandria . " Dried up in its original home," says Jagor, " weakened by the dispersal of its practitioners, the old psychic science had to be doubly prudent if it wanted to safeguard its remnants ; this in part accounts for secret societies ." But yet it was not dead . Only its manifestations were looked upon as supernatural. In the Middle Ages Witchcraft even misused them ; its history is full of cases of suggestion, of hallucination, of magnetic cures which were EGYPTIAN STATUETTE adj udged Satanic . IN WHICH WE RECOGNISE THE GESTURE However lofty minds, like the OF THE LAYING ON OF HANDS elder Pliny, the great Avicenna, Basil Valentin, Agrippa, tried to cast lightning flashes of simple truth into the night of superstition . In the 15th century Paracelsus laid the foundation of modern magnetism, and Arnaud de Villeneuve taught the Arab magnetism . In 1608 Professor Glocenius wrote a book in order to give a rational explanation of these so-called miracles which were being worked by Greatrakes in the 17th century in England, by Borel and Vallee in France, by Gassner in Germany . Unfortunately Charlatanism, the Church and official Science took a hand in the matter, the first to mislead the crowd, the second to 1 See Appendix. Note on Hexagrammatism and the probable magnetic power of the " Adamists ."

446 THE OCCULT SCIENCES prohibit a science which formed part of that Occultism which it hated and dreaded, the third, then in its infancy, opposing everything which it could not understand or explain . And Magnetism had been relegated to the company of foolishnesses and evil deeds when Mesmer brought it to light again in a celebrated article (1779) which made it fashionable . He was the first to strip it of its tinsel coverings and to restore it to its principal use, the relief of physical ills. He used it himself in the shape of passes, suggestions, magneto-therapy (the magnetic tub) and to him we owe the idea of the therapeutic value of a quick and deep action on the nervous system . Unfortunate) his ephemeral fame brought in its train the name of a Sicilian half-earned adventurer, the well known Balsamo, also called Cagliostro, who tried to combine mesmerism with the Kabbala and Magic. with the result that it was wrecked by a ridicule for which he himself is perhaps not entirely to blame . However, magnetic science came into its own again with Puysegur who, in 1784, discovered the " provoked somnambulism," and even obtained phenomena of clairvoyance . After him came Elliotson, who in England perfected the system of passes, Esdaile who in Calcutta anaesthetised patients by it before surgical operations, Gibbon and his experiments with catalepsy, etc . In short, the medical world for a time took an interest in these researches . In 1818 Deleuze wrote an extensive critical history of Magnetism . In 1820 Baron du Potet practised it at the Hotel-Dieu . Then another stop. The failures of Dr. Berna sufficed to induce the Academy in 1837 definitely (as it believed) to relegate Magnetism to the rank of what it called great impostures . But four years had not elapsed when, by modifying the methods and the technique of a magnetiser of that day who did not give up his work, Lafontaine (1808-1892), the English physician James Braid discovered hypnosis without passes (which the Hindus already knew) by making the subject gaze fixedly at a bright spot . Hypnotism was born, whose experimenters denied the existence of animal magnetism, saying that it was not necessary for the explanation of the phenomena which they produced . A third facet of the problem appeared with Dr . Licbault, of Nancy, who claimed that all the phenomena of Mesmerism and of Braidism could be produced by suggestion, that is to say by the forceful action of the eye or the word. Hypnotism was thoroughly studied by Charcot at the Salpetriere . However, observes Myers (in his Human Personality, a work of rank), the eminent physician took a wrong road from which we have had much trouble in turning aside, for his results were only produced by prolonged suggestion, and were to some extent endemic, being due

447 FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM to the very nature of his subjects, the patients . More interesting is the work of Liebault and the so-called School of Nancy, which restored the ancient thaumaturgy with its therapeutic suggestion . Also the work of the learned Charles Richet who may be said to have inaugurated the modern movement with a breadth of view freed from all empiricism, and who introduced a fourth series of facts, the action of the Will at a distance, which was practised in turn by Ochorowicz, Gley, Hericourt, Gibert, etc . To these must be added the names of Bernheim, who reduced hypnotism to its simplest and safest elements, the doctors Lhuys and Liegeois, etc. During the last fifty years it may be said that the miracles of the ancient Magic have almost all been reproduced in the shape of experiments by what has been called Metapsychics . They will be found with comments in a great number of books the writers of which are often the operators themselves, such as Maxwell, de Rochas, Geley, Durville, Delanne, Myers, Osty, Boirac . We have perused nearly all of these books . They abound with facts, proofs, tests . To them we refer those of our readers who may wish for complete and detailed information on these questions . In short it is the physicians themselves who have made Magnetism fashionable again, for the greater part of the experimenters whom we have just mentioned are doctors, and this explains why magnetism has in the main preserved its healing character, as to which we will now say a word . How curious it is that medical opinion should also be its greatest enemy I Due perhaps to the fact of competition in the case of healers without diplomas . It is dangerous, say some . But in many cases. it is ignorance and disdain . Lawsuits have been known where healers were condemned whilst in the witness box their patients blessed and defended them I But we will not dwell on this, merely pointing out that curative magnetism has fine and remarkable tales to tell . Baron du Potet writes its first modern pages . The fame will be remembered of the Zouave Jacob who mixed his art with inoffensive spiritualism, saying that he received his fluid from white spirits, also of Antoine, the simple workman, on whose work a kind of religion called Antoinism was founded, which had its thousands of disciples and its temple in Belgium. Another group of Belgian mediums practised at Chenee' a magnetic cure for all kinds of illnesses by passes and the use of magnetised water . 2 Dr. Liebault himself used the laying on of hands . a There is a complete technique which will be found especially in the Scientific Modern Method of Magnetism, See Practical Guide for the Magnetising Medium. Deleuze would magnetise a bottle of water in two or three minutes by means of passes . ' See Appendix, note as to Healers . 3

448 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Hypnotism, Suggestion, of Paul Jagot with which we cannot deal more fully . here, and which is a real course of Psycho-Magnetic Medicine for the cure or relief of the greater part of functional troubles, of indispositions not due to chronic affections, of neurosis, hysteria, epilepsy, debility, alcoholism, toxicomania, etc. We have used the word "psycho-magnetic "' because there is a doctrine which even introduces psychics into the art of healing others or oneself. Some in fact look upon illness merely as an unpleasant occurrence, the effects of which may be neutralised by will-power, by mystic ardour. They think that it was by means of a will-power of this kind that Buddha and Christ healed the sick . Health is harmony, it may be said, which is cultivated by the accumulation of mental vibrations towards goodwill and towards faith (this would be the kind of thing that takes place at Lourdes) . To this conception was due the birth in England about 1860 of Christian Science, also called Spiritualism . The Christian Scientists deny illness and even its possibility on principle, claiming that this inharmonious defect is purely mental, and that by prayer, which induces an extreme concentration of the will, it can be driven out . Christian Science has to-day more than 6,000 members . It is decidedly beneficial in a large number of cases for everyone knows (and the doctors know, but they take care not to say it) the astounding number of imaginary invalids . But everyone also knows that it has its limitations which anyone of average intelligence can guess for himself . Further Christian Science is a religious sect even more than a therapeutic doctrine . We had in our hands recently a booklet of propaganda, a periodical started after the death of the well-known Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the system which is contained in her remarkable book Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures, and who herself died in 1910 at the age of 90 . There we see that the basic idea of the doctrine is the unreality of illness, of sin and of death, and this as the result of the saying that God cannot have created evil, for to have created it would have been to derogate from Himself . The belief in the entirety of God is obligatory denial of what would constitute in Him a kind of moral amputation . We have above mentioned the auto-suggestive reasoning which flows from a claim after all not more silly than many others . The most surprising thing is that in this paper (The Christian Science Herald of November 1928) and in many others are quoted various cases of healing which, it seems, have been carefully checked . Mrs. Baldwin, 1 The labours of Dejerine and Dubois of Berne have opened the way to what is commonly

called psychotherapy . Some doctors of to-day (for instance Dr . Kechichian) even use magnetism, hypnotism and suggestion jointly in the healing of organic, nervous and mental disease .

449 FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM for instance, who by faith restored to their normal appearance her hands which were crippled with rheumatism . Mr. Emil Nyman who stated that happiness came to his home with Christian Science, driving out ill and unhappiness, and restoring sight to his wife . Ethel Sheriff instantly cured of an internal trouble from which she had suffered for ten years . Florence Wright who saw a twenty-year-old sprain disappear from her knee . And in passing we would point out that these do not seem to be nervous diseases . It is also only fair to say that Christian Science has its healers who show you the road to the necessary fervour and who give you advice as to the use to make of this extraordinary medical healing . They are spread over all parts of the world and have everywhere their branch churches and their lecture rooms . In London there are several, the head office being in Adelphi Terrace with churches in Sloane Street, Curzon Street, and elsewhere . In short, psychic healers start from the principle of projecting into the mind of the patient his cure, or the possibility of his cure . Further, everybody is able to magnetise . But to magnetise properly is another matter . This requires intelligence, integrity, will-power and much practice . It is also necessary to have the fluid in excess so as to be able to pass it on to another without fatigue . To find out if this is the case, show your fingers to a lucid somnambulist, and she willl tell you because she will see it. Finally good health is essential, for otherwise one would run the risk of communicating one's own defects to the patient . At bottom what is meant by magnetising someone ? It means saturating him with fluid . But in order to effect the combination of the two fluids (of the operator and of the subject) it is necessary that the fluid of the operator should be the stronger, the more abundant, and be in sympathy with the fluid of the subject . Once this sympathy exists, the magnetiser practises his art in special conditions into which we cannot go here for want of space, and also because we do not want to give incomplete information which might lead to incorrect practice and entail serious consequences . It must further be understood that magnetic healing is not universal, and in no way supersedes either allopathy or homceopathy, and that the physician remains the best adviser of his patients . But why, instead of opposing curative magnetism, do not physicians ask its help and incorporate it in their studies and in their practice in those cases where Science does not ive them the desired results ? It is claimed (we quote Paul Jagot) F` that Magnetism is a form of energy inherent in the human organism, which, projected in accordance with the rules of the art, raises the

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tone of the vital movement of the patient, thus lending to his organism the forces required to work the physiological reactions which will restore health and strengthen the internal effort implied in these reactions . Magnetism enables us to reawaken the vigour of one or more organs which have fallen into a state of atony, to moderate the tone of their movement in cases of over-excitement or inflammation, to sterilise the seat of microbes, to regulate all functions, to fight debility in all its shapes, by intensifying cellular activity, and in all cases to produce a mighty revival . Suggestion, in a state of wakefulness or of induced sleep, has a very deep influence on all functions, on motor, sensory, nervous and psychic troubles ; it alone can effect extraordinary cures ." And this seems to us to be a reason why psycho-magnetic healing should be taught and practised . Whence comes, and what constitutes magnetic force? We do not know exactly what is the nature of this kind of radio-activity due to a fluid which resembles electricity, and perhaps is electricity of a special kind . Everyone has it, at least latently, but in some it is more abundant or more active . In any case this fluid may be exteriorised, added to that of others, in this way strengthened ; and it can act, even at a distance . It exists in all bodies, organic, or not, but it can be released from the human body with particular intensity . Hector Durville thinks that magnetism consists of the waves caused by the vibration of the atoms constituting the body, the amplitude and frequency of these waves varying with the nature of the body . It is seen everywhere in nature, accompanies all life and all movement . It produces phenomena analogous to those of galvanism . We find in magnetism two poles positive and negative which attract or repulse each other . There is a whole theory dealing with magnetic polarisation. Spiritualists and Theosophists, who say that the soul is in fact surrounded by a perisprit which shapes our thoughts, a fluid form which is perceptible to our senses when these are developed as in the case of mediums and lucid somnambulists, claim that this perisprit in its turn is surrounded by a magnetic fluid having the shape of the body itself, moulded on it, and varying with the individual . In any case the magnetic element plays a considerable part in all psychic phenomena . Projected on a sensitive in the waking state, it induces attraction, repulses contractions, even muscular paralysis . In sleep it induces in succession a suggestive state, a cataleptic state, a somnambulistic state and a lethargic state, the last three being different in magnetism and in hypnotism . In magnetic somnambulism the subject at first only hears the

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 451 operator and the persons with whom the latter puts him in contact . Then comes a second stage, in which, if the operator pinches himself, the subject feels pain in the same spot . After this he becomes lucid, that is to say sees persons and things beyond the reach of his senses, and even foresees the future . If magnetic influence continues, the subject eventually sees the emanations which flow out of the body . Finally his sensitiveness becomes exteriorised. We draw special attention to this last stage of magnetisation because it opens up an unexpected horizon and perhaps explains three phenomena which have long been attacked :-apparitions of living or dead persons, spirit photography and the acts of ancient witchcraft called bewitching. It is Colonel de Rochas who succeeded in exteriorising the sensitiveness of a subject, claiming that, just as a liquid evaporates, so it is possible that particles may become detached from the body of the magnetised subject and be visible as emanations undulating like flames . In fact, having magnetised a subject, he saw, right at the commencement of the loss of the normal sensitiveness, the luminous down which in the waking condition covered the skin, dissolve and reappear in the shape of a light mist ; this mist became condensed, getting brighter and brighter, and finally took the appearance of a very thin layer which followed, at a distance from one to two inches, the whole outline of the body . If the operator touches this layer, the subject feels it . If magnetisation is continued, this first layer is succeeded by several more, each at a distance of from two and a half to three inches from the preceding layer . Then the subject feels touching, burns, stings, etc ., on these layers which sometimes continue to a distance of from six to nine feet, the sensitiveness getting less and less . What can we do then save conclude with Gabriel Delanne, that we have here in truth a materialisation of the soul, or rather its perisprit, that, therefore, the latter is able to leave its subject and form the apparitions the reality of which, now certain, has been so much discussed. Still more, if a glass of water is passed through the zone of exteriorised sensitiveness, and that glass of water is then carried farther away, it also remains sensitive, that is to say the subject feels it if the water is touched. Mr. de Rochas tried to find which substances were the best for storing this exteriorised sensitiveness, and found that liquids, viscous substances, gelatine, wax, cottonwool and velvet were the best . Further, this exteriorised sensitiveness can be photographed . We have mentioned wax . Now what is bewitching if not the exteriorisation from a distance of the sensitiveness of the person sought

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to be bewitched, and the transfer of this sensitiveness to a wax figure which is hurt in the hope of reaching in this manner the hated enemy . 1 II From Magnetism to Mediumship

Before examining-alas, briefly-the other phenomena of metapsychics born from the study of magnetism and hypnotism, let us say that therapeutics was not alone in reaping a benefit from these researches . We have seen that magnetism provides a tangible proof of the existence of the soul, or at least of its perisprit . But all metaphysical, philosophical and psychological ideas have gained in clearness through these metapsychical experiments . They now rest on a firm basis, whereas for centuries, at least in the West, they were relegated to the domain of speculation . Further psychism has modified and improved the consciousness and the moral of the individual . We can to-day learn how to improve in ourselves to their highest pitch our own psycho-magnetic energies and our mental faculties by freeing them from the influence of depression, how to rise towards perfection, and if we happen to accept the conclusions of Theosophy, what consolation shall we not derive from the certainty of our continued ascent towards Blessedness and towards Beauty Let us now broach the list of the phenomena of which we have just had a foretaste, beginning with the simplest which are partial hypnosis, somnambulism, clairvoyance, thought transmission, suggestion, presentiment, telepathy, premonitory dreams, foreknowledge, etc. After this we shall pass on to the exceptional and higher phenomena which are classified together as acts of mediumship, and from which arose the doctrine of Spiritualism which claims to find in them experimental certainty and proof of human reincarnation, this belief in animist evolution leading to the summit of Theosophist doctrine . • • Somnambulism is an anomaly by means of w hich some persons, in their sleep, carry out various actions just as if they were awake . There can be but few people who have not heard of somnambulists (not to be mistaken for foretelling the future-we are here dealing with natural somnambulism) whose actions have been told so many times that we shall not go into them here . But somnambulism can be induced (this discovery, above mentioned, was made by the Marquis 1 Compare, however, in this connection the explanation as to bewitching by elementals given in the Second Part .

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 453 de Puysegur) . In this case it is called hypnotic . Hysterical persons easily pass into a state of spontaneous somnambulism accompanied by delirium caused by hallucinations, and they can also easily be hypnotised . Somnambulism also sometimes causes a curious division of personality owing to which the subject seems to act according to two separate psychologies . In the ordinary case of sleep-walking, the subject performs acts which turn him into another person . Thus Trousseau quotes the instance of an exceedingly upright magistrate who, owing to attacks of this kind, became at night an extraordinarily doubtful character. It was no doubt this case which inspired the very remarkable play in which a magistrate was seen to become at night a kind of scoundrel who frequented places of ill-fame, a thief who one fine night broke into his own flat I Somnambulism is distinguished from dreaming by the fact that the sleep-walker on waking has no recollection whatever of his actions . The most extraordinary cases are quoted in large numbers :-a chemist who in absolute unconsciousness and with eyes closed dispenses medical prescriptions with the utmost exactness ; an actress, put to sleep, recites in its entirety a part of which she did not know the first word ; a teacher who, in this condition, corrects the exercises of her pupils, etc. Useless to go on quoting cases which everyone knows in some form or other . Hypnotism is no less a demonstrated fact, however fantastic may be the results which it has achieved . The easiest way of inducing it is to make the subject gaze fixedly at a bright object, whereupon he falls into a state of hypnosis, a characteristic of which, as of somnambulism, is a total or partial loss of sensitiveness . The first experiments were made by Abbe Faria, General Noizet and Dr . Bertrand ; then in 1841 by Braid the surgeon (above mentioned), whose experiments were copied by Professor Azam in 1859 . But we must wait until 1875 before we see Charcot and his pupils operate on hysterical persons at the Salpetriere . Charcot induced catalepsy, then by suddenly suppressing the original light, a kind of somnambulistic lethargy, during which the subject was able, when told to do so, to read, write, sew, answer questions, etc . Bernheim and Donato were able with a mere glance to put healthy persons to sleep . The same strange results were obtained by hypnotism as by somnambulism . Dr . Bremaud caused a subject to repeat in his house a conversation carried on in a low voice by two persons in the street, a youth knowing nothing of trigonometry to solve a problem, a man who has just drunk water to believe that he was drunk owing to too much beer . Dr . Liegeois persuades a man that he has committed a crime

454 THE OCCULT SCIENCES and compels him to give himself up, and he does so, giving the most atrocious details of his crime as they have been suggested to him . But the word " suggest " leads us to suggestion. Everyone knows that it is possible to influence a patient by suggestion to such an extent that he feels no pain, as was done for instance by Dr . Choquet in 1829 when he removed the breast of a Mrs . Planteau, this being one of the first experiments in this direction . Dr. Berillon succeeds in improving or curing by suggestion children suffering from stammering, St . Vitus's dance, kleptomania, terror at night, etc . Dr. LiCbault in this manner turned lazy and undisciplined pupils into studious ones . A crowd may be influenced by suggestion . Plasson one day induced three parts of the audience of a hall in which he was lecturing to believe that a sponge on which he poured clear water gave out an unpleasant smell, saying that he was in fact pouring a nauseous liquid on it ; several of his hearers actually left the room, saying they were upset . It is almost certain that the well-known Alssaouas suffer from autosuggestion during their wild rites ; it is even probable that the certainty of the Ascension of Christ was due to hallucination of the whole of the Apostles present, due to suggestion by the " Galilean Rabbi ." Voyance, or second sight, is the faculty possessed by some persons of knowing events quite apart from any suggestion, without the assistance of their senses, either in a waking or a sleeping state, or in a state of natural or induced somnambulism . This remarkable gift has been known at all times . Philostrates tells how Apollonius of Thyana described, at the very moment when it took place, the murder of Domitian in Rome by the freedman Stephanus . Swedenborg in 1754 saw in Gothenburg where he was at the time, the burning of Stockholm, and Kant verifies this . Since then occurrences of this kind have abounded . They fill the pages of the Proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research, the Annals of Psychic Sciences, the books of Flammarion (The Unknown and the Psychic Problems), of Crookes (Researches on Spiritualism), of Sidgwick (Experiments in proof of Clairvoyance), Roux (Some Cases of Lucidity), of Aksakof (Animism and Spiritism), of Goupil (Lucidity), etc., etc .. Thus Mrs. Sidgwick caused a clairvoyant to guess correctly 187 times the suits and the number of pips on cards drawn haphazard from a piquet pack; Major Buckley found 44 subjects out of 89 experiments who read correctly mottoes which had been enclosed in sealed nutshells ; Dr. Quintard presented a child of seven who discovered at the first attempt a hidden object, the page of a dictionary opened haphazard by its mother, the number, kind and even the date of coins contained in a purse, etc . Another instance of clairvoyance, or rather of thought-reading,

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 455 was supplied some time ago by Otto Kahn, a German, and we quote it because it is of interest owing to the number of well-known persons present at the experiment which is reported by a great newspaper on the 8th April, 1925, as follows :"Mr. Otto Kahn, who had been introduced to Mr . Charles Richet of the Institute, to Professor Cuneo, surgeon at Lariboisiere, to Eugene Osty, head of the Metapsychical Institute, was invited by Mr . Morain, the Prefect of Police, to a reception at which were present Mr. Louis Barthou, Mr . Loucheur, Mr, Lescouve, Mr . Schoederlin and others, in all twelve persons, who were asked each to write a sentence on a piece of paper folded in eight and kept in the closed hand of the writer. When this had been done, Mr. Kahn asked those present to exchange the papers as they liked without opening or reading them . Whereupon he told the contents of each paper and the name of its writer . To the amazement of those present, who were more or less sceptical, he made no mistake (except in the case of one word which had been badly written and where he read ` filou ' instead of 'felon'), and they were forced to recognise the remarkable power which Mr . Otto Kahn shares with Bert Reese, Ossociecki and a few others ." Flammarion, amongst hundreds of other cases, quotes so-called premonitory dreams in which the subject during his sleep saw places unknown to him the description of which was subsequently admitted to be correct, or hastened to the assistance of some person seen, who subsequently was found to be in danger . Doctors Despine, Chardel, Charpignon and scores of others tell of visions at a distance, of cases of somnambulistic lucidity in great numbers . These cases are sometimes related to telepathy owing to which people haire learnt of a death by the sudden appearance of the deceased at the very moment when he drew his last breath, to thought transmission, to presentiments, etc. In his well-known book Hypnotism and Spiritualism, Lombroso who, owing to his scientific education was at first hostile to Spiritualism, but, convinced of its truth after having seen and studied numerous and undisputable facts (from 1882 onwards) subsequently believed in it, quotes the following :-the prophetic lucidity of a girl of about fifteen who foresaw events which took place two years later, the case of Estelle de Neufchatel, who was paralysed at the age of eleven, and in whom by means of magnetism the sense of hearing was transferred to the hands, the shoulders and the epigastrium ; the case of the young E. B . de Nocera (aged 20) who reproduced drawings made behind him whilst his eyes were bandaged ; the case of Miss Crellin who, having lost a diamond, saw in a dream the corner where she had dropped it and found it there the next day ; the case of Miss Arabella Barret who was told by her sister in a dream that she would die at the end of five

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 456 years, and this happened, etc ., etc. It is this book which contains the experiments of the famous criminologist with the well-known Eusapia Paladino (there were 17 seances in Milan in 1892) which were tested and verified by Aksakof, Richet, Finzi, Gerosa, Schiapparelli, du Prel and others, all scientists of recognised integrity ; but here we are in the special realm of mediumship of which we shall speak later on . Dr. Luys observed cases of the transmission to a distance of the feelings from one hypnotised person to another .' Doctors Bourru and Burot about the year 1887 obtained the action of medicaments at a distance . Jagot induces a subject to guess what a certain friend of his will do on the morrow, going so far as the settlement of a pending matter ; another guesses the time shown by a watch placed on his head ; he also relates several cases of psychometry . Psychometry, of which we have already spoken, is a phenomenon by which a clairvoyant, on touching an article, will tell its history as if he found the record written on it. Sometimes the psychometrist takes the hand of a person (for there must always be contact) and reads a part of his destiny . 2 The former Cure of Ars, Abbe Vianney, had this strange gift . Laure Raynaud, who died in 1924, was wellknown on the same account . G. Durville relates how in 1918 during a motor-car race she told him the winners in their correct order out of 38 competitors. Mr. Phaneg is at the present moment one of our best known psychometrists . 3 Cases of intentional clairvoyance likewise abound . This is usually obtained by fixing the eye on a crystal ball . Miss Angus was a crystal gazer, 4 a method which recalls the visions of the magicians of old in magic mirrors . But there are other objects which are used in clairvoyance, and on this we again quote Paul C . Jagot :" Our modern pythonesses fairly often use coffee grounds or the white of egg instead of crystal balls or polished surfaces . They interpret according to definite rules the shapes resulting from the pouring of these substances from a height into a cup . Everyone who has taken the trouble to study this method of divination knows that some of its practitioners at times obtain both as to the past and as to the immediate future information which is strictly accurate, too detailed and too connected to be entirely accounted for by the interpretation of the rudimentary shapes in question . • The surfaces looked into are analogous to the classic tools of • See Emotions in Hypnotsce and Lectures on Hypnotism . • This is the case with Mr . de Fleuric?re, a clairvoyant with whom Dr . Osty is at present experimenting. • See his Method of Psychometric Clairvoyance . A Andrew Land, Visions in the Crystal. See also in our Second Part, magic mirrors .

457 FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM clairvoyance . It would seem, therefore, that here too we are faced with a phenomenon of metagnomy. As much might be said of cartomancy. Although the Taroc contains in its 78 leaves and in a very clear though symbolical form all possible predictions, yet it would be impossible to make use of it successfully without some gift of second sight . Pins, the white of eggs, coffee grounds and Taroc cards would in short seem to be merely so many means of inducing the metagnomic faculty to act ." We quote these daring though not improbable explanations of clairvoyance, also that of Leadbeater :-" We are," says this theosophist, " bathed in an ocean of air and ether which penetrates us as it penetrates all physical matter, and it is by means of vibrations that impressions reach us . Now the numbers of vibrations to which we are able to react is very small . Amongst the extremely rapid vibrations there is an exceedingly small section to which our retina reacts, and the vibrations of this section produce in us the sensation called light. In the same manner our tympanum only reacts to a very limited range of comparatively slow vibrations acting on the air (sound) . But there are very many other kinds of vibrations (electricity, magnetism, etc .) above and below these two sections, which only few people (clairvoyants) can perceive ." Thought can therefore be transmitted by waves, as in Wireless Telepathy. It can be projected into space (and this is proved by the Telepathy flows from foregoing cases) towards a definite aim or not . the subsconscious whence comes the fluid which is able, both in a waking state and in sleep, to leave the body and to exteriorise itself to the extent of affecting photographic plates and registering apparatus . These invisible radiations can therefore exert an influence at a distance, transmit thought, extend very far and with a speed which is almost instantaneous . It is in this way that we might be able to explain the apparitions related above, , the sound of a familiar voice of a beloved person suddenly heard from a great distance, etc . The well-known scientist Crookes set up a scientific theory of brain waves. different from Spiritualism but resembling it . These waves, he thinks, may be transmitted across the ether from one brain to the other, and evoke in the latter an image similar to the one which gave it birth . But as this theory does not entirely account for crowd hallucinations or foreknowledge, Myers set up another based on the conception of psychic invasion which it would take too long to go into here . It will be seen that the problem is complex, of enormous interest, still obscure, but it is impossible not to state it . And we have not dealt with the foreknowledge which we mentioned just now, or with

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 458 presentiments differing from telepathy in that they have a motive, the latter being unexpected . In a moment we shall tell of the miracles of mediumship . Still more surprising than the phenomena produced by this is the fact that they should be neglected by thousands of people, or simply denied in the same way as a blind man might deny the gorgeous or the dark beauty of a landscape in which he finds himself because, wrapt in his sad night, he does not see it . We do not think it necessary to add to the list of phenomena due to or connected with Magnetism . We might for instance recall those produced by the power of Fakirs, a power much greater than any known in the West, those Fakirs and Yogis of India who are able, by their strong will, to raise themselves unsupported in the air, to make a plant germinate and grow in a few hours, to remain for days without food or drink in an apparent death which is but a prolonged trance (see our Second Part) . We might also discuss miracles and ask ourselves if they are phenomena due to Magnetism (which certainly has many seeming miracles to its credit) or to a divine power . Let us merely recall the saying of Anatole France who asked how a miracle can be said to be a " transgression of natural laws " when these are not yet completely known to us . And let us also remind believers who are somewhat too anxious to account for them without thinking by the omnipotence of God, that one single breach of the laws of nature entails, owing to the complete inter-connection of all phenomena, a complete breach of universal law . But what would be the use? We do not say that a scientific explanation of the miracles of Christ would mean bringing them to the level of a vast deception, for, if accounted for by magnetism, they would remain no less disturbing or less worthy of respect . We do not say of Lourdes that it is a hoax, or that it is a definite proof of celestial miracles. We smile at nothing, are indignant at nothing . We search and we wait. However, what we have just seen leads us in truth to believe in the reality of the soul, since Magnetism gives us material proof of it . But it also alters our conceptions of it . Instead of looking upon it as one and entirely spiritual, it seems, after these thousands of experiments, truer to look upon it as consisting of two parts, the one in truth immaterial, imponderable, eternal, the seat of intelligence and of will, and the other semi-material, fluid, acting as connecting link between the body and the mind. It is this impalpable covering which is the seat of the subconscious and of those waves which are capable of exteriorising themselves and of producing the surprising phenomena which we have just reviewed .

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459,

III Mediumship This conception of the soul, to which we shall have to come back, and which really is not new (as we have seen in our Second Part) will enable us the better to understand a further series of phenomena, namely those produced by mediums. But first one word as to mediums themselves . We know that they are persons whose nervous system has the peculiar power of exteriorising their psychical energy . Mediumship is a physiological faculty and not a miraculous gift . It has not of necessity any connection with the morality or the intellect of the subject. And this statement, made by spiritualists themselves, is of immense importance ; for on the one hand it is possible to find mediums who are capable of cheating (sometimes unconsciously)-no one will deny this-and on the other hand this statement is strongly in favour of the veracity of phenomena obtained in fact through mediums who, in their normal condition, are entirely unable to utter the words or to perform the deeds uttered or performed by them in a state of trance . Knowing the possibility of cheating on the part of mediums, it is sufficient to guard against them by taking the necessary precautions and by surrounding them with rigorous checks ; this has been done by the eminent scientists who have experimented with them . Once these phenomena have been admitted, it only remains to seek an explanation . And this is the very crux of the matter . Some maintain that they are natural, and have no connection with any spiritualist doctrine . Others claim that any material hypothesis is entirely insufficient, and favour the spiritualist doctrine, as all the philosophies and all purely animist religions, whilst admitting, as their name indicates, their belief in the existence of the soul, do not explain how these souls, once disincarnated, are able to reveal themselves to us and influence living beings by the aid of mediums who may be compared with those instruments of physics which assist the senses and enable them to penetrate farther into the phenomena and the laws of nature . In passing let us mention the reply which Gabriel Delanne in his Researches into Mediumship gives to those who, like Paul Janet, claim to be able to obtain through hysterical subjects the same phenomena as through mediums ( this with the intention of confounding the two) -In the former, who are ill, and always women, the phenomena are only obtained after long delay and never except in the presence of their usual magnetiser, and they never relate anything except facts known to them ; in the case of the latter, men or women of normal health, the phenomena are produced spontaneously, consciously, and the information given may relate to matters of which they know nothing .

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THE OCCULT SCIENCES It is also said :-Among the Spiritualists there is either a good deal of delusion or a small amount of trickery . The numerous scientists who have pledged their scientific honour in books signed by them and relating what they have seen cannot all be described as idiots, madmen, scoundrels or sufferers from hallucinations . We have quoted many in these pages, and there are scores of others . Their authority seems to us to be worth at least as much as the derision or the denial of those who have studied nothing, witnessed nothing or who, even if honest, have not had the opportunity of being present at conclusive experiments . There, as everywhere else, success does not always come . But would you deny the existence of flying because, on the occasion of your visit to an aerodrome, you are unable to see a flight because the plane is temporarily out of order ? Tables only turn, say the unbelievers, when one of those present is cheating. Others, less unkind, say, they may turn and rise, but it is because the chain of hands produces attraction . All that is legend . Mediums have been known to move tables and other objects without touching them . But we are in the following going to give a brief list of phenomena due to mediums, from the simplest to the most complex . They are numerous, varied, but capable of classification . We have only included phenomena of undoubted authenticity and sincerity . The scope of this volume does not allow us to give all the tests to which they have been submitted, the accounts of which run to scores of pages and sometimes to a whole volume (they will be found in books entirely devoted to these questions and which are sufficient to furnish a whole library 1) We are not even able to mention all the classes of phenomena, but must confine ourselves to a few . First of all the phenomena of percussion . Too often only the word raps is used . This does not describe all these noises which are most varied, sometimes resembling a crackling, a scratch with a pin, a series of sounds like those of an induction machine, or detonations, metallic sounds, kinds of murmurings ; these noises are at times also produced in a tree, a wall, a stretched thread, on a pane of glass, a tambourine, etc. We mention this in answer to the objection that the medium produces these raps with his feet, his nails, or by cracking his joints . Not being able to deny these strange sounds, Babinet, Faraday and Chevreul tried to give the usual scientific explanation . They never succeeded . To each explanation Crookes re plied by an experiment, either with Kate Fox or with Home, his chief mediums . He proved, and this is important, that these sounds, which are due neither to illusion nor to trickery, are in fact governed by an intelligence ; and this intelligence is not that of the medium, for in the experiments where these raps become a language, it has been proved that the answers could not possibly have been given by the medium if he had

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 461 not been in a trance, and sometimes they were such that they could not have been suggested by any one present . It is well known that a table is not at all necessary in order to obtain mediumistic replies. As a matter of fact its alphabet is inconvenient. For a long time now it has been superseded by the planchette with three feet, one of which is fitted with a pencil . And here we have yet another class of phenomena-automatic writing. A medium whilst in a trance and without the intervention of another will (the reason for this is to avoid the possibility of thought transmission) gives answers to questions put by words which, put together, make sentences (experiments of Aksakof) . It will also draw, paint, etc ., all this of course being of interest only if in a waking state the particular medium is unable to perform these acts, and if the answers are admitted to be correct whilst relating to things of which the medium is ignorant . Oxon 1 and Crookes claim to have seen the hand which moved the pencil . Weber, Schreiber, Zollner repeated these experiments in Germany ; other scientists produced them in other countries . An author, William Howitt, wrote a whole book in a state of trance and without thinking of it . Sometimes the medium writes backward with an incredible speed (experiments by Myers, Devolluet, etc) . William Crookes had a medium, Kate Fox, who would write automatically a message for one person present whilst a second message on a different subject was given to her by another person by means of an alphabet rapped out, and at the same time she would talk with a third person on a subject entirely different from the two others . Let us leave table turnings on one side, but mention the phenomena of levitation. Mediums have been seen to lift solely by their psychic force tables weighing some 60 pounds to a height of one, two and even three yards, and they have moved all kinds of articles without any contact . Others play the piano well without ever having learnt it . Delanne on his Researches on Mediums quotes hundreds of cases each more extraordinary than the last, and each duly vouched for . Georges Aubert has related the experiments made with him in 1905 by the learned members of the General Psychological Institute . There would be no end to the list of cases and proofs contained in the books of Leon ' The pseudonym of the Reverend Stainton Moses. Tables turn from right to left as do the stars, thus obeying the cosmic law . And here we would draw attention to the extraordinary tendency of moving towards the right . In man, a false movement is generally compensated for by the right arm or the right foot. To catch an article the right hand is the first to be used . All nations write with the right hand, even if the writing goes from the right to the left as in Hebrew or Arabic, or from the top to the bottom as in Chinese or Japanese . We instinctively walk on the right hand side, and turn to the right when meeting another. The general belief sees in the East, that is on the right, health, hoqe, joy, and in the West trouble and sorrow . It is from the right that the invasions come which renew the strength of the West. It is from the right, the East, the Rising Sun that the lofty Eastern philosophy comes which is to bring us salvation .

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Denis (In the Invisible), J . Maxwell (Psychical Phenomena), Gabriel Delanne (Materialised Apparitions of Living and Dead), Dr. Dupouy (Beyond Life) and a score of others which we have perused with ever growing astonishment and emotion . For here we are at the very summit of the extraordinary. In absolutely serious seances there have been seen to appear at the call of the medium hands, faces, busts, whole bodies having the appearance of life . These hands touch, caress, knock, move articles, play musical instruments ; these faces become animated, smile or weep, these bodies move . It has been possible to photograph these apparitions. Casts have been taken of them . Reports have been signed by persons who are too eminent for the least doubt to be cast on their good faith or their lucidity . Even if the spiritualistic explanation is not accepted, and it is difficult to find any other, the facts themselves remain patent, indisputable, and none has the right to attack them . IV We must return to the spiritualistic explanation to deal with it fully, first stating that it arose in America in 1846 as the result of strange phenomena which took place in a house at Hydeville, N.Y., which was actually haunted, and that it was subsequently introduced into Europe through the zeal of the tireless thinker Allan Kardec who collected and collated all the teachings of the philosophers connected with the conception of the survival of the soul and the possible communication between the living and the dead . According to Spiritualism, as we have said, the human being consists not of two parts but of three-the visible body, the invisible soul (or mental body) and the semi-material perisprit (or astral body) . It is the fluid but perceptible perisprit which seems to be evidenced by mediumship . A. P . Synnett in his Occult World goes so far as to say that the soul is a material reality, only more ethereal, more subtle, more lasting than the body and which would fall within the realm of Physics if Physics entered into greater harmony with the other sciences . Physics deny the materiality of the soul on the mere ground that it is unable to ascertain its atomic basis and its affinities . But a more sensitive Physics may one day be able to measure the human fluid just as it is able to measure electricity, which also is not perceptible to some of our senses, and as it already is able to measure light and to give us its approximate speed . However this may be, this is what Spiritualism thinks of the three human elements :-The body fulfils the functions relating to the mechanism of life and called physiological . The mental body, the soul, is the seat of the psychological faculties of thought, of reasoning, of the phenomena of consciousness, of the determination of action .

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 463 The perisprit is mainly the master of sleep, but it also takes part in the operations of the mental body and is the cause of certain dualities from which they suffer, in particular of the struggle between the conscious and the subconscious. We note in passing that it is this subconscious which, influenced by astral magnetism, enables Astrology, and also Chiromancy, to show us the trend of our destiny, which destiny the soul is able to modify by the power of the will ; it is this subconscious which enables Graphology to describe our character, our tendency, because without our knowledge it influences the instinctive movements of the hand which holds the pen ; it is through the subconscious alone that the obscure truth born from the handling of cards and Tarots may be explained ; it is also through the subconscious that we have presentiments and that we can vaguely explain oracles, the kabbalistic influence of numbers, of names, etc ., in short everything which is occult . When this subconscious is thoroughly understood, the sciences of magic and divination will have made a great advance . According to the Spiritualists, the soul at the moment of death leaves the body with the perisprit and lives for a short time in the supraterrestrial world, in the Invisible . There it meets other good and evil spirits . souls in a higher or lower stage of evolution . It is especially at this time that it is able to communicate with the living near whom it remains, as it might be said seemingly to have some difficulty in leaving the atmosphere in which it has spent a number of years . Then it is reincarnated, begins here or elsewhere anew planetary life, then later another and yet another, until the day when it attains perfection and bliss . The doctrine of reincarnation, as will be seen, is newer, more modern, more intelligent and nearer to the truth than the old doctrine of metempsychosis which in fact was its precursor . But metempsychosis admitted the possibility of the transmigration of the soul into animals . Spiritualism does not admit such a retrogression . Founded on the principle of evolution, it says that the soul ever rises from incarnation to incarnation until the time when, become pure spirit, it will enter into the Divine . According to Leadbeater, who has written a short but excellent sketch of . Theosophy, of which he is one of the leaders, the soul at each reincarnation clothes itself successively with the mental body, the astral body and the physical body which it leaves in the same order when it passes from one life to another . In each life it acquires an amount of knowledge and of abilities which it adds to its former possessions. And it is for the very reason that complete truth and complete perfection are so difficult to acquire that several lives are necessary . Hume, Max Muller, Huxley, all these great thinkers express the same opinion . In the opinion of theosophists this hypothesis of

464 THE OCCULT SCIENCES reincarnation alone can explain the problems of life, especially the problem of Evil, of Integral Justice which cannot admit the idea of forgiveness granted by another, even by God, for this would mean reducing Him to the level of man ; man bears the burden of his faults, and himself frees himself of this burden . This doctrine of reincarnation would require a whole volume, and we cannot even give a brief review of it here ; but we must admire its pioneers, such as Henri Regnault who for ten years has been fighting with admirable courage and tenacity, giving endless lectures where he victoriously replies to all objections which his hearers raise' as he has replied in a book of marvellous lucidity to the antispiritualistic sermons of Father Mainage . One of the most convincing cases (there are others) which attracted the attention of Regnault is the well-known experiment of Colonel de Rochas in 1904 with his cook Josephine . Having put her to sleep, the famous scientist induced her to go back through her existence ; adapting her voice and her gestures to the persons who she had been in former lives, even writing in their style, this woman told that she had once been a man named Jean Claude Bourdon, born at Champvent in the Commune of Polliat and had gone through her military service at Besancon in the 7th Artillery, 2 and had then been a woman named Philome ne Charpigny, married to a man of the name of Carteron . It is obvious that neither she nor her magnetiser had ever heard of these persons . Enquiries were made, lasting several months, and they were satisfactory in that they bore out everything that Josephine had said . 3 The same results were obtained with the girl Mayo, experimented with by Dr. Bertrand and the engineer Lacoste at Aix in Provence, but here things went even farther, for when a year later the girl was again questioned whilst asleep, she went through exactly the same stages as previously . And this meets the main objection raised against the possibility of reincarnation-the lack of remembrance . After all, nothing would be more natural than this total absence of memory, seeing that we no longer have the same registering brain as in the previous life, and besides we forget many events of our present life . And yet, it will be seen, in some cases, thanks to the persistence of the ego, that is to say the imperishable part of ourselves, this recollection reappears . And it seems to reappear especially in the child under 7 years of age (the age of reason) who frequently utters words which the parents do not understand, and gives curious evidences of innate knowledge . Besides, whence comes the natural conscience which enables us to See Spiritualistic Reality, The Living and the Dead, Reincarnation, etc ., by Henri Regnault .

• Reincarnation, as will be seen, does not involve the survival of the same sex . • See Successive Lives, by A . de Rochas.

FROM MAGNETISM TO SPIRITISM 465 distinguish good from evil quite outside any moral teaching ? Whence comes the genius - of infant prodigies ? Heredity is not enough to explain everything. 1 Still we loyally acknowledge that the doctrine of successive lives must be studied a great deal more deeply before it is looked upon as a certainty . 2 But it already has theoretical and experimental foundations which entitle it to be looked upon as an extremely plausible hypothesis . a Let us assume that it has gone beyond hypothesis and become a certainty, and continue with our statement . When, therefore, death takes place, the perisprit still surrounds the soul and keeps it back for a time in terrestrial planes . This is a period of wandering, the period most favourable for the manifestations of which we have spoken . Then follows reincarnation and the loss of remembrance of past existence . Therefore, and this is the comforting part of Spiritualism, there is no death . Or rather it is merely the disintegration of the coarse corporal covering . On the contrary it is a birth to a more beautiful and noble life than the preceding, a life which is no doubt still subject to vicissitudes, but all the same is nearer to complete spiritual happiness . A tree is judged by its fruit . How is it possible to say that such a conception is unhealthy ? How can anyone dare, as has been done, to say that it is caused by the Spirit of Evil, by Satan ? Why does not the Church, which has the duty to have a living doctrine if it is not to become worn out and to succumb to the indifference and negation of those thinking minds who are dissatisfied at seeing it settled down in its old dogmas, try to adapt itself to these discoveries and these new intuitions, and modify slightly its spiritual philosophy so as to bring it into accord with the spiritualistic philosophy and especially with Theosophy ? Before closing this chapter we must draw attention to a slight 1 Extract from the Petit Parisien :Rangoon, 12th April, 1925 .-A child of four is causing amazement among the Buddhist priests in Bengal by his sermons and his metaphysical discussions . The priests do not hesitate to say that the knowledge of this child has been acquired by him in the course of a previous life in which he was himself a Buddhist priest. 2 One of the objections raised against it is the possibility that in the cases quoted (to which may be added the experiments of H . Regnault with his medium Helen, who formerly was a certain Jean Merlan of Marseilles, a certain Ernest Orner, a travelling musician and a certain Marie Tanes, a servant particulars of whose life have been traced) we are dealing merely with lucidity ; that is to say that it is not impossible that in a state of magnetic somnambulism the subject may draw from her unconscious a subliminal romance or may obtain the vision of some person other than herself who may in fact have lived in the circumstances described by the medium. $ It will be seen that Spiritualism is related to Buddhism . In this connection attention may be drawn to the fact that the Hindoos have two schools of training, the Ragi Yog which leads to the superior discipline of Occultism, and the Haiti Yog which is a physical training leading to the exterior revelation of the soul .

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difference of opinion between Spiritualists and Theosophists, which makes it necessary to use two words to express one and the same doctrine . We could not do better in this connection than refer to an article on the subject by Miss Annie Blech which is shortly as follows :Miss Blech, who was a spiritualist before becoming a theosophist, does not deny Spiritualism, but sees its dangers as far as mediums are concerned . In this respect she says verbatim :In the subtle world which interpenetrates ours, and which we call the astral world, there are elemental forces dangerous to sensitive beings ; there are human entities no less to be feared, even when they can no longer manifest themselves in a physical body . Their subtle body hungers, so to speak, after physical life, longs to associate itself with a body which is able to give them this. If the medium is not protected, his habitual passivity and receptivity make him a ready prey, exposing him to obsessions, yea even to possession . And as among Spiritualists every possible encouragement is given to the medium, he is driven to this passivity which soon turns him into a docile tool of the forces of the beyond, and at the same time he runs serious risks both moral and physical. How many insane persons have begun by being merely obsessed ! I have myself received so many poignant and tragic confidences, so many requests for help sometimes too late, that I do not think I go too far in asserting this danger . In order to keep the medium from it, he would have to be protected not merely by outside influences, but also by his own life-a pure life ; also by pure food, drink, and surroundings ; many conditions; as will be seen ; or by a strongly tempered will, which is rarely found allied to passivity . These conditions generally keep evil entities away ; purity repulses them, and strong will is a shield against which their strength wears itself out . Further dangers threaten mediums, and here I am mainly thinking of mediums with materialisation . Experimenters very often play with fire . Completely ignorant of the psychology of the medium, they submit him to tests which seriously compromise his health, sometimes even his life. Madame d'Esperance, an authentic and remarkable medium, whose book I have translated, wrote to me one day that never again would she make experiments with scientists who might be recommended to her, for one of her best friends, herself a medium, had just died as the result of imprudences committed during a scientific spiritualistic seance . Scientists, whilst believing themselves to be more qualified than others to experiment with mediums, are often less so, for amateurs may in this connection have a knowledge resulting from numerous experiments, which scientists may not have in spite of their special studies and experience . And that is why the experiments of the Sorbonne, so much talked about, do not prove anything at all and cannot, in my humble opinion, be said to controvert the observations made in this particular case by several persons who were well qualified by their experience and gifted with qualities which are indispensable to an experimenter in psychic sciences .

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467

If I refer to these seances at the Sorbonne, I am at the same time thinking of other seances, where other mediums have suffered under excessive and unskilful tests, or else have in truth worn themselves out in vain efforts, sometimes falling victim to suggestion . Is not a passive sensitive being more apt than any other to yield to repeated, if sometimes unconscious, suggestion? If he yields, he is unmasked, and henceforth a prey to suspicion ; if he resists, often no further phenomena are produced, and for a professional medium this is a catastrophe . Besides, in the case of many sensitives the very fact that they are surrounded by suspicion and not by sympathy as they ought to be, is not favourable to the production of phenomena . Some, for instance Eusapia Paladino, ask for sympathy ; even when in a trance it is necessary, indispensable to them . This question of the professional medium ought to be solved in the best possible way . At present it is demoralising.

A second divergence of views is shown by Miss Blech, who says elsewhere :We believe in survival, we believe in the influence to a certain extent of the other world on ours . We believe in the possibility, though more restricted than allowed by Spiritualists, of communication between the living and the dead by means of their methods . But we do not think it useful or beneficial continually to call up the departed, by writing or by table turning, to try to bring them within our ambit . Considering the very limited means they possess for the purpose of manifesting themselves, we can only obtain communications which are rather vague, often commonplace and without any interest . Only seldom can they give satisfactory details . Eight times out of ten it is a case of auto-suggestion, of subconscious manifestations or -of trickery. So much for us ! As for them, to call them up, to bring them continually to us in order to ask their advice-which in their lifetime we should not have followed-is disturbing and delaying their post mortem evolution . For they have their path to follow as we have ours . Why should we compel them to live in the past ? Even if they are not forced to do so by automatic writing or by planchette, they none the less often dwell with us in thought, always loving . By constantly drawing them into our terrestrial ambiance we to some extent materialise them and we revive their regrets . Without taking into account, adds Miss Blech, that in some cases of abnormal death (violent or tragic) the evocation may cause to the victim, who is plunged into a kind of post-mortem torpor, a sudden, premature and very painful awakening . Conclusion :-Supposing that Spiritualism is true, let us be very careful with experiments, only accepting them for the purpose of demonstration ; but' let us avoid too many manifestations . A popular saying may well be recalled here and adapted to the dawning faith :-" Let the dead sleep in peace ." Better say, " Let the dead proceed in evolution in peace ."

CHAPTER II CONCLUSION

The Coming ReligionElements of Theosophy Is it possible to draw a conclusion from the matter and the ideas contained in this book ? We think so, but hasten to say that it will be but provisional . It will be provisional because it will contain, when the facts are put on one side, only an attempt at philosophy, a certain amount of hypothesis, an effort at personal deduction . More modest than in numerous dogmatising scientists or the acknowledged representatives of existing religions, who all contradict and when necessary anathematise each other, we shall not set up an orthodoxy of our own . We shall confine ourselves to saying :What we are going to lay before ,you is but a theory . But it is a theory which is possible, probable, in harmony with thousands of minds and innumerable experiments . It is a very living theory and which may therefore be perfected so as to become a quasi-certainty . It seems to us that this quasi-certainty will be reached as and when these experiments become more numerous, more authentic, as and when eminent thinkers become more interested in it and increase in numbers until they form the majority, as and when Science, becoming impregnated with Occultism, will constitute a kind of intellectual heredity which little by little will make natural and simple everything which to-day amazes, disturbs, shocks our mentality, our conceptions, our ways of understanding . 1 Once more let us point out that the conquest of Official Science is progressing . How much progress has been made since the year (1887) when it solemnly rejected Magnetism as an imposture ! As we have seen, the hyperpsychical sciences have been and are being more and more studied by scientists who are known and respected by all ; books without number, copious reports have been signed by men 1 We cannot resist quoting these words spoken in 1899 b y the medium Piper, taken down by Dr. Hodgson and recalled by Conan Doyle in the preface of his book The New Revelation :" In the next century Spiritualism will be astoundingly accessible to human understanding . I foretell you besides a thing of which you will confirm the fulfilment . A terrible war overturning the various parts of the world, will precede the obvious perception of our relations with the Beyond ." 468

CONCLUSION 469 of the greatest eminence . No one can to-day in good faith doubt the existence of disturbing phenomena which infer the existence of a psychic fluid capable of giving rise to marvels, doubt the reality of what -even giving it another name-was called the soul, a knowledge of the latter different from the old formula, in short a very strong presumption in favour of reincarnation . Further the doctrine of Reincarnation by its essentials links up the old and the new spiritualistic religions and incorporates itself with the normal conclusions of Occultism which itself henceforth presents a homogeneity, a tradition, a connected whole which are most surprising and most seductive . It accepts the higher Magic, the deeply studied Kabbala, the arts of Divination if we do not ask from them a too narrow and too childish exactness . A man is called an Occultist if, rising above exoteric religions and prejudices, he constructs with the help of the elements of the Occult Sciences, like Rudolph Steiner and like Michael Savigny, an explanatory and interpreting system of the Universe and its laws . And it is this Occultism, in which so many eminent minds, whilst still more or less tied to old formulae of philosophy and religion, are already to be met, and also a large number of educated men, anxious to have a clearer, more rational, more comforting and freer faith than that in which their youth was reared, it is this Occultism which constitutes what we call the coming Religion . This religion is still in course of formation, consisting of scientific, spiritualistic, theosophical data, which have been collected and coordinated round the central idea of Reincarnation, but still wary in setting up its catechism and friendly to all persons of good will. Hence it is only its chief elements that we shall try to state here .

Above all we must• insist on this-that Occu• ltism, the religion of the future, states as its first principles the negation of the supernatural and the negation of chance . Oh, some will say, we were convinced that the Occultist was really a flycatcher, without any critical sense, ready to believe in miracles, to collect the simplest coincidences, belatedly superstitious whilst quick to pretend to science ! Is it not thus that he appears in various books, such as The Supernatural in the 20th Century by Constantin and Maygrier We know the book . Alas I it says exactly the opposite of what ought to be said . It makes the supernatural the basis of Occult Science, assigns a diabolical origin to metapsychical occurrences, and accepts miracles, the sign of providence ! Whereas the Occultist, we repeat it with Joanny Bricaud, repulses the supernatural (hence the miracle) and rejects chance . This means that he is not a mystic !

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He only labours to extend the realm of experiment, to search for the law behind the occurrence, to explore the invisible so as to suppress its mystery. This shows clearly the meaning to be given to the word Religion when applied to Occultism . It implies merely at the moment of its triumph the explanation of the origin and of the destiny of the Universe and of Man, and of the moral concurrent with this explanation . How does Occultism expect to arrive at this explanation? By experiments, by deductive and inductive methods, and by an intermediary method which does not take their place but adds to their possibilities-the method of analogy . The law of analogy is as old as the world, being already stated in The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistes without being confoundedd with similitude (a thing analogous to another almost never resembles it), and is much used in Occultism to arrive at the relationship existing between phenomena. Amongst other laws dear to the Occultist, and in addition to those of the Binary, the Quaternary, the Septenary, and especially the Trinary, with which we have already dealt, the following must he noted :-The law of the series . This is the law which requires an intermediary, or a resultant, between two opposed poles . It also depends from the Ternary . For instance, Day and Night, with Twilight between the twothe Tepid between the Hot and the Cold-Balance between Attraction and Repulsion-the Liquid between the Solid and the Gaseous, etc . The occultist Louis Lucas has applied this law to almost all phenomena, whether physical, chemical or biological . This is the law which, in addition to the proofs given, and by analogy, supports the idea of a perisprit between the body and the soul . The law of involution and evolution . By its aid we see the Active, whose essence is unity, attracted by the Passive, whose essence is the multiple, the Passive absorbing the Active and disseminating it in order that each atom may be vivified . This is involution . Thereupon the created spirit becomes polarised in matter which in its turn evolves, becomes spiritualised and returns to unity . This is evolution. This law of aspiration and respiration, as it has also been called, expresses and explains the fall and the re-ascent of Man who springs from the Divine and will one day return to it . As has been seen, this is symbolised by the Taroc in expressive images . The law of correspondences . This was brought to the fore especially by Swedenborg . The word correspondence is applied to everything which, in the natural world, exists following a thing in the spiritual world . With it is connected the sign-manual which is the sign of the

CONCLUSION 471 influence of the spiritual on the physical and forms the basis of all arts of Divination . The law of the signs of support . In order to act, Man must have the support of a sign corresponding by analogy to his will . This is the basis of the power of the human word (prayer, blessing, curse, incantation) . It- is the fundamental law of Magic . We shall find these laws again in the summing up of the occult teaching, as we understand it, with which we intend to close this book, apologising at the same time for the repetition of various conceptions scattered over the preceding pages . According to the Occultist, and according to the essence of Tradition, Man is formed, by the Ternary Law, of three main elements-the physical body, the astral body (or perisprit) and the mental body (or soul in the usual sense of the word) . The Hindus and the Egyptians believed this fifteen centuries before Christianity . The Kabbalists taught it in the Middle Ages . Mediums have proved it by experiment . It is the astral body which directs our vital force, and it is through it that cellular evolution takes place . It is the double of the physical body. It has a fluid emanation (called aura )which is specially dense round the fingers and the head . From it flow the mediumistic phenomena and the ectoplastic exudations . 1 It is the aura which is projected in cases of telepathy . It is the astral body which, in some cases, is able to leave the physical body and form apparitions, even at a distance . The astral body, which never sleeps, is the servant of our dreams, and enables us sometimes to do things in complete sleep (such as problems solved in sleep, the explanation of the saying, " the night brings counsel," the waking up at the exact time required, etc .) It is neither Intellect nor Conscience, but the strange and dumb companion which accompanies us until death . By analogy to the astral body, the Occultist believes in the astral plane, just as he believes in the physical plane (the Universe) and the mental plane . The astral plane or world is an intermediary between the two ' We have not spoken of ectoplasm (as to this see the remarkable book of Dr . Gustave Geley, former director of the International Metapsychical Institute, which was published by Alcan in 1924), the curious phenomenon by which some mediums divide themselves by themselves exteriorising a part of their sensitiveness in the shape of a vaporous or solid substance which, at first amorphous, eventually becomes a materialised apparition which may be photographed and from which casts may even be taken . But how many phenomena we have had to omit from this modest volume . It is needless to say that the experiments with ectoplasm which were made by Geley with the mediums Kluski and Guzick were rigorously checked by those present, by Professors Richet, Reclainche, etc ., by Doctors Lassabliere, Humbert, Laemmer, etc. In the above book many other experiments are quoted, such as lightning coming from the body of the medium Erto, cases of clairvoyance, etc . There is also a reply to the wellknown failure of the experiment at the Sorbonne in 1922 .

A THE OCCULT SCIENCES 472 others ; it is filled by the spiritual world just as it itself fills the physical world . It is therefore not a superposition, but a close penetration which has as its result that the astral world is the manifestation of the spiritual world, just as the physical world is the manifestation of the astral world (see, in our Second Part, the ingenious comparison of Durville) . It is the astral plane which receives impressions from the superior place and carries them out on the inferior plane ; it is the reflection of the divine and transmits it to us . Hence every thing is first born on the divine plane, being there potentially, it then passes to the astral plane and is subsequently created on the physical plane . The astral form engenders the physical form, and can no more alter its type than a mould can change the image which it reproduces . Some occultists also believe that every being projects its shadow on to the astral plane, as it projects it on to the physical plane, and that the astral world, like the physical world, is inhabited by various beings, such as entities directing Humanity, images formed by collective aspirations, elementals, souls in the stage of evolution, etc . Without going into these perhaps too hypothetical matters, we may say that it would be natural enough to locate on the astral plane disin .carnate souls awaiting reincarnation, and of this we will speak later As to elementals, these are supposed to be, being capable of being influenced by us, fluid cells, called in olden times the spirits of the elements (gnomes, sylphs, undines, etc .) or the forces of nature. These elementals enter into us with food ; they are good or bad ; they rule our functions (it is they which are acted upon by magnetism for the purpose of regenerating or healing) ; they inspire our passions, especially the lower ; they are the tools of Witchcraft ; often they are evil and vicious . Such at least is the theory of Papus, of the Rosicrucians, of the Martinists . One word now as to Theosophy . And let us say at once that the latter (we keep to its best known, its most " official " form, that of the Theosophist Society which reflects the teaching of its most distinguished exponent, Mrs. Annie Besant) does not formulate dogmas, but offers a field of study by submitting to our thoughts a complete system of Cosmogony . This cosmogony it bases on Tradition which it renews through modern thought drawn from the sources of experimenting, of intuition, of deduction and of analogy :-Theosophy is born of the Occult Mind . Theosophy teaches :-(1) the existence of God, giving, however, to this word the larger meaning of Divine Principle, giver of life,

473 CONCLUSION dwelling within us and without us, eternal and benevolent, invisible and yet perceptible ; (2) the immortality of man and his continual ascent ; (3) the certainty of an absolute justice governing the world, and consequently making man his own fudge, his own arbiter, dispensing to himself reward or punishment, in accordance with a fatidic law which yet leaves him his free will . 1 This shows the main differences between Theosophy and a religion such as Christianity :-A God, yes, but not outside us, and in no event a judge who rewards or punishes according to whether he has been obeyed or offended . The conception of heaven or hell is repugnant to the theosophist as being imbued with anthropomorphism . Immortality, yes, but of Man himself and not merely of the soul, of Man who is reincarnated as many times as is necessary until, under the law of Karma and of absolute justice, he reaches celestial bliss, the reabsorption into the Divine, the Perfect, into Unity (law of involution and of evolution) . From the three above-mentioned truths the Theosophist concludes :Nothing is due to Chance . In spite of appearances, everything works with intelligence and exactness for good, even unpleasant things, according to a divine plan of progress ; hence the necessity of understanding this plan, of collaborating in it . Man must always take this point of view, for his life on earth is but one moment out of his eternal life ; there is no death, or rather it is but a step from one rung of the ladder to another . Behind him Man has his past, made up of his actions whether good or evil, and each entailing an inevitable reaction, and before him he has his future, a continual ascent towards Improvement, towards Perfection . And the following practical consequences :This full knowledge of Destiny alters the face of life, gives it a direction . The Theosophist learns to govern himself, to love better, to make 1 It is this law of nature, which enacts that every act shall bear in itself its own results,

that Hindu philosophy, and subsequently Theosophy (which has drawn much from it) has called Karma, the law of Karma . " What is called Karma," says Georges-Anquetil in his terrible and prophetic pamphletnovel, ~Satan Conducts the Dance, that appalling fresco of contemporary vice, " is the sum total of the merits and demerits acquired by a being . At each moment of his evolution this Karma is for him the starting point of the future, the fount of all distributive justice ." 650,000,001) human beings in the East alone, he adds, believe in reincarnation as we believe in the law of gravity ; to them it represents the great inescapable law which it is absurd even to discuss . And this faith is common to all essential religions . Christ Himself said, " Verily, verily I say unto you, unless a man is born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God ." (St . John III, 3 .)

474 THE OCCULT SCIENCES himself useful to himself and to the whole of Humanity, to face things from a lofty and not a mean point of view, to overcome sorrow and pain and to understand it, to free himself from the fear of death and of an absurd hell, from all anxiety as to his future lot . Let us go deeper, and always in accordance with theosophical teaching :There is a God, but we must restore to Him his true meaning, lofty, noble, disentangled from popular religious ideas . We must distinguish between God the principle and God the leader . God is in everything and through everything . But in practice we must consider that attribute of God which is more comprehensible to us than the Absolute . It is still God, but it is his directing power applied to our own Universe ; this is what Theosophists call the Logos and to whom belong all the good qualities attributed to God, his omniscience, his prescience, his love for men, his wisdom, his omnipotence . This Logos of our own Universe is the master of the plane from which we terrestrials depend . And we terrestrials know that matter has varieties, one of which is ether known of scientists, another of which, much more subtle, also proved by experiment (in especial by the phenomena of mediumship) enables him to get into communication with the Invisible, for it is the intermediary between our body and the invisible . Here we return to the data above examined, to the division of man into three parts, body, soul and spirit (or perisprit), to the division of the Universe into three worlds or planes, physical, astral and mental, to the law of involution and of evolution which makes Man spring forth from the Logos and makes him spring forth with his soul shrouded in the perisprit. And here we are face to face with Incarnation, which is the Logos descending into Matter, bearing within him potentialities which from age to age we shall put to better use so that, by an inverse evolutionary process, we shall return to the Logos and so come to the end of our activities . Such is the doctrine of Theosophy, of which we can only say that it will become the basis of the Coming Religion which will perfect it. For details are lacking, and all fancy must be put on one side . Some Occultists, in our opinion, go too far when they tell us of the intimate life of the spirits, when they draw up a somewhat hypothetical history of Humanity, as for instance Mr . Steiner in his .chapters on the cosmic evolution of man (Occult Science IV, VI), or Mrs. Annie Besant in

CONCLUSION 475 her Genealogy of Man, 1 when they tell us the part which the soul plays during incarnation, as for instance Gabriel Delanne in Animist Evolution, or when they give us details of the civilisations of Atlantis, as for instance C . W . Leadbeater . (See also below the Adamite hypothesis in the doctrine of the Hexagram) . On the other hand, if . the problem of Evil and of Sorrow is litt up by the torch of Theosophy, the problems of morals remain dim . What do these modern Sages think of free love, of suicide, of Bolshevism leading to the nationalisation of the land, which is a seizure of property, therefore robbery from the point of view of the bourgeois, of war which is but collective murder, of the 800 per cent . profit of traders who argue about freedom of trade, of the use of poisons, of the duel, of the deliberate suppression of a tyrant, all these deeds being by some called courage, cleverness, liberty, justice, by others cowardice, crookery, ignominy, etc . ? In what circumstances do these deeds entail a progress, in what others a retrogression on the astral main road ? And what are we to think of the scoundrels who live sumptuously and die quietly, of the genius and the gentle mind who only meet with disgrace, poverty and despair ? In any case the beautiful words of the poet Leon Denis, one of the warmest supporters of Occultism, remain true :-" Let us learn to leave the rigid boundaries (of the University and the Church) and to give a free range to our thought . Every system contains a part of the truth ; none contains the whole of it . The Universe and Life have too many and too varied sides for one system to be able to comprise them all . From these dissimilar conceptions we must extract the fragments of truth which they contain, collect them and classify them ; then uniting them to the new and multiple aspects of truth which we discover day by day, proceed on our way towards the majestic unity and harmony of thought." s And it is on these lofty counsels that we will close both this chapter and our book . i To Mrs . Besant belongs this further curious idea (worked out in The World of to-morrow) that a Great Initiator is born in every age to lead us back to the way of Truth . In her opinion every age (or sub-race as she calls it) has its own . It was Hermes Trismegistes who appeared, even several times, at each of the great emigrations of the peoples of the East towards the West (refer as to this to our note on Truth always coming from the right) . Then it was Zarathustra (Zoroaster) in Persia, Orpheus in ancient Greece, Gautama, then Buddha, in India, Moses amongst the Jews, finally Christ (here Mrs . Besant claims that the word Chriatoa denotes not a man but a degree among the initiates of the Orphean Mysteries, and that we must distinguish between the identity of Jesus the Jew, and the Christ, the great teacher who came at his own time, and of whom Jesus the Jew was merely the disciple) . The whole of that chapter should be read . According to the author, a new Messias is coming, for we are on the threshold of the time of revival. And in fact the prestige which for less than a century Occultism has enjoyed leads us to foresee a philosophic era entirely different from that which is closing which was governed by Materialism now decadent . I The Problem of Being, of Destiny and of Sorrow (Introduction) .

THE OCCULT SCIENCES We sincerely believe that a New Religion is in course of formation, the daughter of Ancient Thought and of Modern Criticism, and that it will be found in an Occultism brought up to date, renewed, fertile, living . We insist on this word living . Many minds at once exacting and timid will say, We only want to lean on a doctrine put forward as certain, absolute, definite ; this is our security, and this alone can be a faith. But, we reply, why do you for your spiritual repose require this certainty which resembles the peace of the grave ? Is not, on the other hand, more living and lofty this continued research which ever advances more and more towards light and truth ? Why do you call a fault in the moral realm and on the moral plane what you consider as a duty in the material realm and on the material plane? You think that continued progress is necessary in industrial science, and you ,want philosophical science to remain motionless ? What a strange contradiction . No ! No ! Let us ever work, ever seek . This is called living . This it is which constitutes our honour and our joy as human beings . May this Encyclopaedia encourage you to direct your mind towards the enormously interesting sciences which constitute Occultism, the source of true happiness . 476

APPENDICES The realm of Occult Sciences is so considerable and so complex that it has not always been possible to us, in the course of this Encyclopaedia, to deal with certain " side lines " which are extremely interesting in their relation tothe vast subject which fills the pages just perused . They will be found in the form of notes which are mentioned in the course of the book, so that they may be easily referred to, and they form these Appendices which have the further advantage that they can bring the work up-to-date in the course of its successive editions . NOTE I

Thinking Animals Everyone knows trained animals ; they have in fact been always known . Training goes back to the distant days of taming . But it is not so very long ago, we believe, that it was tried not merely to train animals, but to make them think . You see the difference. To be sure the training of an animal makes demands on its intelligence, but also mainly on its memory . By repeating a performance it ends by remembering it . And we have all seen very interesting and very amusing instances of this, elephants, horses, dogs, cats, monkeys, donkeys, etc ., competing which shall best carry out its tricks in the circus . Years ago learned geese roused much amusement . To-day we have progressed. Men have succeeded in making animals, especially horses and dogs, do sums and talk (it will be seen how) . And this is not a matter of mere training . It was in 1890 that the Berlin breeder Van Osten succeeded in making his horse Hans count by means of raps struck with his hoof. On the death of his master, Hans passed into the hands of the dealer Krall of Elberfeld, who already had two Arab stallions, Muhamed and Zarif . These three horses soon became famous . They not only carried out the four first rules, but were even able to extract square and cube roots . Of course Krall did everything necessary to avoid any unconscious movement . He gave his orders from behind a screen . Dr . Mackenzie even wrote a problem on a slate, placed it before the horse which 477

478 T.HE OCCULT SCIENCES was alone in its stable, and went with friends to holes covered with glass which had been made in the door . With its hoof the horse struck the number of raps required and gave the correct answer.' Problems were also put to this horse by telephone, someone standing by who did not know the particulars, but put down the reply, which was correct . Better still, with the aid of a written alphabet, the Elberfeld trio were taught to read . And these astounding animals were able to express their thoughts 1 A picture was shown to Muhamed and he was asked, " What is it ? " Girl," he replied without a mistake, having previously been taught to read this word and to know its meaning. " Why is it a girl ? " Reply, " She has long hair ." One day one of the horses refuses to work . " Why? " Reply, " I am tired ." These things seem impossible, or at the very least tricks . No. Maurice Maeterlinck, amazed, relates his visit to the Elberfeld horses in his Unknown Guest . Doctors Kraemer, Ziegler, Sarasin and others, the great naturalist and philosopher Haeckel, the neurologist Edinger, the famous professor Ostwald of Berlin, Besredka of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, scores of others have seen, acknowledged, assured that there was no trickery behind these astounding facts . Rolf, . a lost dog of no pedigree, found by Moekel, a lawyer of Mannheim, learnt counting by listening to his mistress teaching her children. And Rolf, properly trained, also learnt with pleasure to speak by means of an appropriate alphabet . He died in 1919, leaving a puppy, Lola, who was just as remarkable . With this extraordinary animal conversations like the following would take place :" Why do dogs like the company of humans? " " Because of your eyes in which unceasing cares are reflected ." " What do dogs feel when they see these cares in the eyes of people ? " " Love." Another prodigy is Senta, belonging to Miss Bockwold, who succeeds in multiplying 12 by 25, 25 by 33, etc ., knows how many hours there are in 480 minutes, how many days in 264 hours, therefore can not only divide, but work out little problems, who recognises her photograph and says so, and takes part in conversation 1 The cases we quote here are taken from an article by Mrs . Carita Borderieux (in the Revue Benjamin of October, 1924) who herself has a very well-known thinking dog, Zou, born on 26th January 1921 . We have ourselves seen Zou and have questioned him . He also knows the four rules of arithmetic, and counts the tens on one paw, the units on the other . In March, 1925, he knew his numbers up to 100, but since has gone farther . He answers yes (3 raps) or no (2 raps) to 1 Anna's of Psychic Sciences, 1912 .

APPENDICES 479 questions, and as his mistress has made an alphabet for him in wood, he speaks like Rolf, like Senta, and like Seppl on whom Dr . Ziegler wrote a long article in Psychica (15th February 1925). Zou does not lie . If he commits a fault, even in the absence of his mistress, he owns up. He likes to show off his knowledge, faces the general public, tells his name, his age, etc . He has appeared with success in Paris, in Cherbourg, Nancy, Brussels, Ghent, etc . He is very proud of it . Conclusion :-Considering these facts which their rarity does not invalidate, there is no doubt that dogs have a brain organised like ours, but uncultivated, and which, in default of education, gives proof but of natural intelligence . Many dogs might therefore develop their faculties . And not only dogs, but probably all vertebrates, but especially, of course, those which, through being tamed, have come nearer to our civilisation . It would be interesting to try by selection and patient teaching to try and create an educated animal heredity . What results might we not achieve with our lower brethren (but not lower than many cretins) and what fresh sources of intellectuality might we not discover I For us Occultists, thinking animals 1 are but one more proof of the fact that there is no more essential difference between various brains than there is between the atoms of matter . Everywhere there is Life and everywhere there is Thought, but rising from the imperceptible to the glorious fulfilment in the genius . Unity I Unity I This is the great. word of ancient Wisdom, and it will become the great word of modern Knowledge . NOTE II Secret Societies In an Encyclopaedia like the present it is impossible to omit mentioning Secret Societies. But as their history would require several volumes, and at bottom is somewhat without our scope, we shall confine ourselves to not forgetting them entirely and devoting to them a few pages in this Appendix . I And we might say speaking, for there is no doubt that some animals have a language

corresponding to their needs. This has been proved by Dr . Garner who, it will be remembered, studied the language of monkeys and was able to identify a certain number of words expressing simple ideas, such as what is drunk, what is eaten, what weather it is, danger of death, etc . He writes :" Monkeys know the relation of cause to effect, and their mode of reasoning differs from that of man not in essence but only in degree . In order to reason we must think, and if it is true that man cannot think without words, this must be equally true of the monkey ; hence the necessity of expressing these thoughts by sounds which correspond to them and define them ."

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Besides it is only recently that the trail of Secret Societies, going back to immemorial times, has been discovered . 1 Even so we shall leave out ancient secret societies such as the Eleusiana (a Pythagorean society), the Egyptian " fraternities " and deal only with those which arose in the Middle Ages . The Templars .-Their founders are Hugues de Payens and Godefroi de Saint Omer, and their origin is due to the need of protection of the pilgrims to Palestine against the Moslem assassins and robbers . Seven Knights and their Chief took the monastic vows before the Patriarch of Jerusalem ; at once Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem assisted them by giving them as residence the Western part of his palace built in the neighbourhood of the ruins of the Temple of Solomon . Hence their name of Knights of the Temple, subsequently Templars. In 1127 Hugues came to the West and obtained the approval of his Order by Pope Honorius II who gave him a special dress (white cloak with red cross) . The Council of Troyes drew up the statutes of the new Order, based on the Rule of Saint Benedict . But the Knights, being at once military and not enclosed, soon broke vows which were somewhat difficult to keep, first the vow of poverty, then the vow of chastity . Large numbers of wealthy young men joined the Order . Pride, greed, lust corrupted them . They received gifts, and kept harems in Asiatic fashion . As they protected the Papacy, the latter was indulgent to them, exempted them from the jurisdiction of the Church, and finally induced them to come to the West . Of course there were, for the neophytes, initiation and reception ceremonies of great pomp, at night, in church, with vows, ritual, etc. As early as 1129 the Order established Branch settlements, beginning in the Netherlands . In 1131 Alphonso of Aragon introduced it into his country. In 1136 we have a branch in the Languedoc (at Nougarede) . In 1139 the Templars besieged Lisbon ; in 1146 they took part in the Spanish war against the Moors ; in 1191 they bought the Island of Cyprus. The whole of the 12th century is full of their struggles with the Knights of the Order of St . John of Jerusalem . The battle between them in 1259 was one of the most murderous . But the Order was to perish through itself and at the hand of Kings . Philip le Bel was the most bitter against them, arrested their Grand1 The School of Alexandria, says Papus, was the main source of Western secret societies . The Gnostic sects, the Arabs, the Alchemists, the Templars, the Rosicrucians and finally the Freemasons form the Western chain for the transmission of Occult Science . Lack of space compels us to refrain from dealing with the Eastern history of Occultism, although this was the main section, since it was especially in India and in Thibet that the old tradition was preserved, the teaching of which Theosophy has to some extent revived .

APPENDICES 481 master Jacques de Molay in 1307, confiscated their property and instituted a lawsuit against them which lasted seven years . They were charged with a thousand exaggerated misdeeds (in truth they were guilty only of the breach of their vows and of an excess of wealth and pleasure), disfiguring their initiation in which they were accused of polluting the cross and treading it under foot, worshipping Satan, etc . These so-called infamies were so deeply rooted in the popular mind that the Templars were brought to the stake, and even to-day they still survive in the minds of some . Molay was tortured . He bore it heroically, and it is well known that he summoned to the Throne of God his judges who died in the same year, as well as Pope Clement V. The Rosicrucians .-These were founded by the German Rosenkreuz in the early 15th century after travels to Palestine, particularly to Damas and the mysterious city of Damcar where he became initiated to Occultism and Magic, later to Morocco where from the Rabbis he learnt the Kabbala and its secrets . The Fraternitas Rosae-Crucis remained a secret society for a century . About the year 1613 the Wurttemberg theologian Valentine Andrea published a small book about them, giving their rules . The alchemist Robert Fludd soon after introduced the Rosicrucian doctrine into Great Britain . It taught that the Universe consisted of four worlds -the Archtype, the Angelical, the Astral (or invisible) and Sublunary (or physical), and that man was the synthesis of the Universe or macrocosm, being himself a microcosm . The doctrine of the Rosicrucians was introduced into Freemasonry in the 18th century and had its own rite . One of its main teachers in the preceding century had been Commenius, one of the forerunners of modern teaching methods. Towards the end of the 18th century the German Rosicrucian Society had considerable influence on the Court of Frederick William II, owing to its Grandmaster Valner, the Minister of Cults (Kultusminister) . In France its principal teacher was Pascalis, whose disciples were Claude de Saint Martin (the " Unknown Philosopher ") and Willermoz . Lodges were founded in various towns . One of its Grand Masters was the celebrated Stanislas de Gualta, and everyone knows how much the no less famous Sir Josephin Peladan did for it . Connected with the R + C is the Martinist Society of Parus . The Carbonari.-This semi-political semi-religious sect was first founded in Italy . It is said to be descended from the Guelf conspirators who hid in the woods (hence the name Carbonari) so as to escape from the Ghibellines . They had a double purpose in view-the independence of Italy and the reform of the Church . According to another version

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the Society was founded in the 15th century in France, where its members were called Good Cousins and were at the start occupied in good works. Yet another version says that it was imported from Italy by the army of Francis I . However this may be, the French Carbonaria professed a gentle and cheerful philosophy, whereas the Italian was sombre and vindictive. It had many reverses. It was born afresh in 1818 amongst Masons persecuted by the Restoration who united with the Italian Republicans . The Illuminati .-This Society was founded under the influence of Jacob Boehmen, the cobbler-philosopher of the 17th century, and renewed under Swedenborg. The latter has always claimed that without being the dupe of his imagination he had talked to Angels, Spirits, even God Himself, and this during a period of 28 years . His first interview " with God " took place in 1745, and he relates it . in a letter to Mr . de Robsam quoted at the beginning of his tract De Ccelo et Inferno . God told him that He had chosen him to explain to men the esoteric meaning of the Holy Scriptures . This mission the writer carried out till his death . A Swedenborgian Society exists in London at the present moment, with Headquarters in Hart Street, Bloomsbury . Freemasonry.-This is the most important Secret Society of all times, the best known and also the most living. It goes back to the greatest antiquity, perhaps coming from the East. It is said to have been founded by the Masons who built the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem . In the Middle Ages it tried to recover the mysterious and symbolic cult of the ancient Magi, and in this connection the Scottish Freemasonry was the most interesting . Unfortunately, says Papus, it cannot be disputed that present day Freemasonry has almost entirely lost the meaning of the traditional symbols constituting the possession which it was to transmit from age to age. Its ritual seems ridiculous to anyone having the slightest knowledge of the profound teaching of Antiquity . With the exception of a few great minds who in their inmost soul regret that it has not kept that which constituted its greatness and which would to-day make it an intellectual power, Freemasonry is in the main a kind of co-operative society of " arrivistes ." In short, it is perhaps amongst the People that we must try to recover the occult teaching . This teaching is contained in the Taroc, and the people by which it has been preserved is that people without a country contemptuously called Gipsies .

APPENDICES 483 However, if the Taroc contains the essence of Tradition, there is no doubt that men of loftier mind were required to explain it . And Secret Societies are no longer required ; these men working in the full light of day are the noted Occultists of our own time whose accumulating labours reconstruct and modernise for us the ancient and august science of the Magi . NOTE III

Hexagrammism Amongst the most interesting modernisations of the ancient intellectual construction of the Universe, of Man and of the history of the Globe, a place must be reserved for that created by Michel Simon-Savigny, a Swiss-orally after the fashion of the Magi-and transmitted to his two sons Edmond and Georges who to-day are spreading it with admirable unselfish devotion and filial piety . This theory is called Hexagrammism (it will presently be seen why) and has been spread by means of various works" and a review called the

Hexagram.

We leave out the reproach which Messrs . Savigny make to dogmatic Christianity of having spoilt Tradition . Christ, they say, is but a counterfeit of Christma, the name given to the Hindu Messiah . The individual himself is but a legendary copy of Sakya-Muni who, like Christ, was condemned to death by the Brahmins at the age of 88. The conception of Trimurti is 8,500 years older than the idea of the Trinity. The Sermon on the Mount is but a feeble imitation of the Prayer of the Initiate to Brahm . In short, according to the two brothers, we have here a colossal imposture . The truth according to their father Michel Savigny is as follows :The appalling flood of the Barbarian Invasions which beat down upon the Graeco-Roman world almost destroyed a civilisation which the mind surviving it believed to be the first, and that nothing had existed before it, attributing to it everything that it had in fact borrowed from Asia. It was not until the 18th century that scholars like Champollion, Bailly and others discovered civilisations prior to the Greek, namely those of Egypt, Chaldea, India and China . Then the question arose whether these nations had not in their turn taken their knowledge from others, older still . Research and legend proved unquestionably that this was so, and ' G . and E. Savigny, The Adamites, Adamite Metaphysics, Hexagrammist Chemistry, etc . There is also an excellent Little Manual of Hexagrammism which forms the basis of the present Note .

484 THE OCCULT SCIENCES little by little the vision arose of an immense social structure which in Iran preceded all others . Then a last question suggested itself Was the Iranian Empire in fact the beginning of the civilised world ? No, replies Savigny, for the Iranians themselves said that they had ancestors whom they looked upon as a kind of Gods . It is this primitive nation to which our philosopher gives the name of Adamites . According to him the Adamites are the first humanity which was destroyed in an appalling cataclysm which all nations remember under the name of Deluge . And the Swiss scholar accumulates proofs, legendary, historical, geological, etc ., into which we cannot go at length, but which are very disturbing . Of the Adamites we retain, amongst others, two recollections, The Earthly Paradise and Atlantis . The first is a homage to the marvellous lost civilisation of the first conquerors of the world, who seem to have governed it by gentleness, skill and Science . The second is a confused image of the astounding alterations of the surface of the earth . Savigny believes that the Adamites understood thoroughly -all psychical sciences (hypnotism, etc .) and that they ruled by means of this prodigious power which in particular enabled them to transform certain kinds of wild animals into tame ones, a miracle which it is impossible again to perform . We are in fact to-day no longer able to make a wolf into a dog, although we know very well that. it is exactly the same animal . There can be no doubt that the Adamites had a priestly caste composing the initiates of their secret science which was capable of being written down in geometrical figures which we are going to reproduce together with their meaning . Tradition preserved the certainty that a great Messiah would come, the reincarnation of the Magus Hermes whose wisdom had been destroyed by the Deluge, and would choose a nation in which would be reborn the great lost race . Tired of waiting, the Greeks were acclaimed as this race, and Antiquity saw in them the descendants of the Adamites . But numbers of Magi did not believe this, and Hermetic initiation was continued occultly under the name of Kabbala . Michel Savigny believed that through his researches he had rediscovered the symbols of Hermes, of which the following are the principal The following is a short explanation :1 . Hexagram.-It is the key to astronomical science . In it are found the conditions of universal balance, the Zodiac, the six geological periods, the law of colours . . We shall return to it presently .

APPENDICES 485 2. Pentagram.-The key to the science of Being, of Life, and of Death. The seated Buddha is drawn within the pentagram, the lines of which cross on the navel . If man is standing in accordance with the pentagram, arms stretched out and legs apart, the lines cross in the sex organ. Now Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise for having eaten the fruit of the Forbidden Tree, that is to say an apple. And the apple cut in two is the only fruit in the centre of which we find the drawing of a pentagram .

e

t period

CANCER

YELLOW

V

VIOLET

3. The Double Square-Double Circle, which is the token of Masonry, symbolises the Science of Lines, of Letters and of Numbers . In it are found the whole of elementary geometry and the origin of the Roman alphabet .' These three symbols were in Antiquity the link binding all Initiates together . ' The Greek alphabet seems to have been inspired by the serpent which also plays so great a part in Tradition .

486

THE OCCULT SCIENCES The Hexagram has six points, one of which, at Capricorn, and the other facing it, at Cancer, each govern a triangle, and each triangle governs a geological era, the whole of them constituting the six eras which the Bible calls the six days of Creation and of which the following is the list in the light of the new doctrine :1 . Cancer or Crab . The Reign of the crustaceans and molluscs . 2 . Pisces . The Reign of the fishes . 3. Scorpio . The Reign of the Reptiles (originally it probably was a riper) . 4. Capricorn . The Reign of the small mammalia and birds . 5. Virgo . The Reign of the placenta-mammalia and higher mammalia . 6. Taurus . The Human Reign (the part which Taurus, the symbol of man, plays in Tradition is well known) . The logic of this table will be noted, as also the fact that the first three periods are those of cold-blooded animals, the last three those of warm-blooded animals . We cannot here deal in detail with the Adamite theory of the origin of beings and things, founded as it is on the analogical study of electrical and vital forces, based on a first primal force called the od, on the certainty borne out by the science of to-day that matter is only a form of electricity, on the analogous division of electrical forces into four classes of simple atoms, on the one hand physical (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, azote), on the other hand psychic (sensitiveness atoms, memory atoms, reason atoms, intelligence atoms) . We will only mention its conclusion :-the physical group is provisional, the psychic group is final. This is the conclusion of Spiritualism, the conclusion of Theosophy. The ego is immortal and indefinitely perfectible . Hexagrammism also, therefore, teaches Reincarnation, and the possibility of communication between the living and the dead .

• hexagramm • ist• theory is the explanaAnother interesting• point• in the tion of the ascent of the Being through the centuries . 1 The terrestrial fauna, says Savigny, was entirely altered in each of the terrestrial revolutions. There have been, as we have seen, six of these revolutions . Now, each time a superior class of animal life was born, not by succession, but by superimposition on the preceding . We have the impression of a succession of leaps forward, which seem to be the result of a desire to ascend . a Mr . Savigny therefore assumes that it is not the function, ' Ascent which is symbolised by the word Jehovah divided as follows :-Io-I have been ;

Ho-I am ; Va-I shall be. I It should be remembered that it was Hugo de Vries who first replaced the old aphorism of Line Natura non fecit saltus so dear to Darwin and the first transformist theory, by the eertainty of sudden changes . This idea has also been adopted by the present day geologists who uphold catastrophism and saltation, as does Mr . Simon Savigny. But the interest of the theory of the latter lies in the explanation of the law of mutation by the desire to ascend .

APPENDICES 487 but the desire which creates the organ . Thus the fishes seem to be born from the desire of the crustaceans to rid themselves of their hard shell and to live the free life of the ocean, the reptiles to be born from the desire of leaving the water and conquering the earth (to which they adapt themselves as the fishes had adapted themselves to the water), etc. The Being therefore feels each time more and more the inferiority of the body which it inhabits, and desires a superior, nobler, freer constitution. On the day on which nature will at last ,fall in with the desires of the Psychic Being, the latter will have acquired marvellous force which will enable it to fulfil itself. We have thought it extremely interesting to draw attention to this doctrine, which is linked with what we know of Magic and of the tremendous power of psychic forces . In short, to each great cataclysm corresponds a sharp ascent of the Being towards Improvement . Why? No doubt because at those times extraordinary electric and magnetic storms exert a deep influence on all beings and make them more malleable by psychic desires . These cataclysms in turn igneous and glacial are probably astronomical phenomena and seem to recur at fixed dates every 25,000 years . NOTE IV " Healers " On the 25th of February 1925 Maitre Maurice Gargon and Maitre Jean Dumont defended before the 13th Chamber the former printer Marius Jacomet who was charged with illegal practice of medicine by carrying on treatment through suggestion and the laying on of hands. Numerous witnesses, amongst them an inspector of police (1) gave evidence in his favour . Dr . Charpy, of the Salpetriere, also appeared in his defence . To be sure there were accusers-a few who had not been cured . But do all doctors cure all their patients ? Once more the lawyers appealed to the testimony of historyEmpedocles and the Pythonesses, the Eleusian Mysteries and the Book of the Dead (one of the remnants of Egyptain Science), the wellknown names and the annals of Magnetism. And the same pleadings recur each time a Healer is summoned before the Court . How much longer is this trifling to last ? When will doctors be willing to admit that it is possible to heal without having received a diploma from the Faculty ? Finally, when, since it is obviously necessary to protect the public against charlatans and swindlers, shalI we see the establishment of an Academy or an extra-medical Faculty

488 THE OCCULT SCIENCES of Magnetism, constituted partly of certificated medical men, partly of well-known healers of standing who shall have submitted proofs, such Academy or Faculty itself holding examinations and giving its own diplomas? It would be so easy and would obviate the judicial stupidities which periodically annoy public opinion . Jacomet sometimes cured by the simple laying on of hands, but knew nothing of occult science . Mr. Jean Beziat, another accused (March 1925), operates in the same manner, and also with his breath . But he is an agricultural engineer, familiar with the things of the spirit, and edits a review, The Fraternist . If the former is to some extent a sorcerer, we have in the latter a kind of magician who, in an address given to a number of his patients before calling them one by one into his consulting room, explains his powers as follows :" I believe that we are all, during our whole life, plunged in a bath of vital forces, unknown as yet, but all-powerful . They are of two kinds, on the one hand those which we rule, as for instance what we call electricity, and which we have learnt to employ, on the other hand those which are stronger than we are ; and these latter we have to entreat when we want their assistance . Now one of the fundamental principles of logic is that there is no effect without cause, and all the evidence goes to show that we are effects ; therefore we have a cause, and whether we call it God, Nature, Supreme Intelligence, Zeus or Buddha is a matter of no importance to me ; I am not narrowly religious and do not wish to impose my convictions on anybody . But experience-and experience is the one thing to which we must constantly refer-experience proves that the cause always loves its effect. Thus the mother loves her child, the artist his work . " Why, then, should the great Cause of which we are the effects, not love us ? It is to it that we must appeal when we are in pain or sorrow, it is to it that we must pray for healing of our own suffering and the suffering of others . When the small spring is dried up, it needs for its revival the great celestial spring which dispenses the fertilising waters ; so also our waning vitality needs, for its maintenance and support, the great source of life which surrounds us and which at any moment is capable to carry out its office . True it is that the power to call on these forces and to bring them into play varies in different persons, and in the actual case this gift is the most important thing. It has been bestowed upon me ; my hands, being laid on, have power to heal, to relieve . This is empirical, and I am not proud of it . But as far as we know there is nothing to tell us that it will not be possible in the near future to develop this power and to use it. " I also want to tell you of a method which I thought I had invented,

APPENDICES 489 but I have been informed since that it goes back to a very venerable antiquity . It is the method of hot breath . I place my lips on the spot where the pain is, and having drawn in a deep breath, I project with my full strength to the end of the breath all the air in my lungs . It is tiring ; it has to be done several times, taking care each time to go back about three feet from the patient so as to draw in fresh air . And what I recommend is that each one of you, when returned home, should ask some one near to you, ask all those of whom you are sure that they love you, that they should practise this breathing,on you as often as possible . Its action is an efficacious assistance to the cure . Finally, give me the pleasure, all of you, of copying the little prayer which you see pinned to the wall, near the chimney, and which you can usefully repeat from time to time . It is short and clear, and, remarkable to relate, it has been considered orthodox by Bishops, Pastors, Rabbis, and even by Freemasons .' " You see that my methods have nothing magical, and that I make use neither of by nosis nor of auto-suggestion . If the latter exists, it is perhaps useful, but it is not necessary . There you are . But you must not imagine either that you are all going to be cured instantly . Although I have been happily able to carry out instant cures, as some of you will be able to testify, these are somewhat exceptional, and it sometimes even happens that at the start the illness gets worse (due to the fact that increasing vitality puts more energy into the fight) . Do not get anxious about this but have confidence and courage ." Mr. Valentin Mandelstamm who, as special correspondent of the Petit Parisien, went to Avignonnet, in the Haute-Garonne, to see Mr. Jean Beziat, gives the following account of one of the consultations at which he was present :" I had the opportunity of talking with many of the patients who had recovered their health . All are unanimous, definite in their description of the illness from which they suffered and of their healing, whether it was instantaneous or progressive . " Mr. Beziat makes no diagnosis, but the great experience which he has eventually acquired, enables him, he says, to check immediately the words of the caller, and if necessary to correct them . And to each one he applies the same method which he has explained in his preliminary talk. " After a few questions, without unnecessary words or discussions, his anxiety being to act quickly and well, he grasps his patient closely with his great powerful hands, and holds him erect or stretched out on 1 It is as follows :-" Universal and eternal seat of life and of intelligence, which is none other than God, and of which the soul of each one of us is but a spark, grant us, I beseech thee, a little more of thyself, that is to say of life and of intelligence, and consequently force, resistance and health."

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 490 the bed ; and either through a fine handkerchief or on the bare flesh, his big beard the while forming a halo around his face, he breathes with the full force of his lungs ; you can feel that he puts his whole soul, his complete desire into it . His face, naturally of a high colour, flushes still more, the veins of his neck swell ; he repeats this several times, and only stops when out of breath . " Thereupon he passes on to the laying on of hands . " With a kind of pious and convinced passion, without any fear of contagion (it should be added that after each operation he washes carefully with a disinfectant) he lays his palms for one or two long minutes on the most repulsive ulcers ; at the same time he utters a warm prayer, analogous in spirit to the formula pinned to the wall of the waiting room, enlarging it, adding details, the name of the person for whom he prays, the nature of his disease, all kinds of developments inspired by the circumstances of the particular case . " I have seen him operate in this manner, serenely, on an old peasant whose face was eaten up with a horrible ulcer, in the presence of the old man's son who accompanied him . And after this act of faith, the sight of which had a grandeur of its own, I heard him state with irresistible authority that within a month the man would see his terrible wound dry up and decrease, and that he would be cured. With the consent of the three parties I make a note of the name and address. " In parentheses be it said that the power of healing by the laying on of hands generally includes the power of vitalising matter and to a certain extent rendering it imputrescent . Mr. Bcziat claims to have made the experiment before witnesses . He took twin bulbs of a tulip ; the one which he treated by vitalising passes flowered a fortnight before the other. So also with two pears-the fruit treated by him reached twice the size of the other . Of two pieces of calf's liver, belonging to the same animal, the one which he left aside rotted in the usual time ; the other on which he practised his magnetic method, became hardened, dried up, and never gave the slightest odour. He operated in the same manner on an eel without emptying it ; it never became deliquescent, and he keeps it on a board in his library, looking like a rubber cord, translucent and brown . " It is not impossible that he might obtain similar results by operating on human corpses ; and in this perhaps lies the secrethitherto unknown-of the Egyptian embalmers . " Further, as has been said, Mr . Beziat lays claim to no special scientific hypotheses, and he gives his services without asking for any return, leaving it to his patients to show as they think best their eventual gratitude . Engaged with his patients from early dawn till night three days a week, he spends the rest of the time in dealing with his monumental correspondence, in which task his wife and daughter

APPENDICES 491 give him their skilled and devoted help ; he has but scant leisure for the work of his farm and his fields in which he yet has the keenest interest. " The records carefully kept by Mr . Beziat are most moving and constitute an eloquent reply to the decree of the judges ; they contain the details of some six thousand cures, with references to evidence, the name and address of the patient, often also of the doctors who had attended him and had given up his case as hopeless . Instances of every kind of human ill are found in them, and cures at a distance abound . It is difficult not to be impressed by such a record . " Infantile meningitis, dry gangrene of a toe, both treated at a distance . Hydropisia due to cirrhosis of the liver . Persistent diarrhoea . Tuberculosis in all its stages, down to the last . Lupus of the face . Cancer. Epilepsy. Ulcerated stomach . A small boy of eight who never walked in his life-now he runs 1 A hopeless idiot -after two visits he was able to pass his degree. A heart which had stopped beating for three hours was revived . A mad-woman with maternal and grandmaternal heredity had been confined for seven years in an asylum near Paris, suffering from crises of mania (necessitating a strait waistcoat) and stomachic and intestinal ptosis said to be incurable . The father went to see Mr . Beziat ; the patient began to feel better at the first visit, and Mr . Beziat having continued to treat her at a distance for a month, she was completely cured, the stomach and intestines returning to their proper place . The physician in charge of the asylum says that he bows before the actual fact . On . (of Albi) hunchback from birth, the 9th October 1924 young G attested and looked upon as incurable by a doctor whose name is given, came. A fortnight later he was cured and straight as a ramrod 1 A witness at the recent prosecution was young C . . aged 18, paralytic through diphtheria, completely blind, declared by the doctors to be incurable ; her arents go to see Mr. Beziat . On their return they see the child cured.' Lastly-a further witness at the prosecution-J .S. . . . (of Saint Julien, Herault), 100 per cent. disability after the war, paraplegia . Spent three months at Montpellier and was sent home as incurable . His father went to Mr. B6ziat who treated at a distance . Straight away J .S. recovered -the use of the right leg, and after three sittings was completely cured ." These are facts . To condemn the man (for Mr . B6ziat was sentenced to a fine of 800 francs) who obtains them, thus relieving his brethren, is not merely a laughable absurdity fit for the pages of a comic writer, For ourselves but is an enormity which surprises us in a magistrate . we draw attention to the doctrinal part of Mr . Bcziat's art, remembering what we have said as to Christian Scientists . A comparison seems

492 THE OCCULT SCIENCES called for . In both cases we find this statement :-God, or rather the Cause, the Begetter, the Creative Force of necessity loves the Effect, the thing begotten, and cannot wish it harm . Therefore Love is at the foundation of the World, and of Occult Sciences ! NOTE . V Modern Discoveries known in Antiquity It is not without interest for the Occultist to prove the value of Tradition by the value of Ancient Knowledge, as superficial minds seem to imagine that the way of the World is a continual progress, and that therefore it is not necessary to take into account ideas of olden times . This is a deep mistake . In Antiquity numbers of things were known which we think we invented . In proof of this we give below a list by no means complete :Astronomy.-Whatever may be thought about it, men of old did not ignore the fact that the Earth turns round the Sun . Plutarch mentions it, referring to the Pythagorean ideas on the subject . Aristotle Philolaus, Aristarchus and others were sure of it . See in this connection the Greek and Latin texts quoted by Dutens (in Origin of Discoveries attributed to the Moderns) . That several worlds are inhabited was maintained by Aristotle, Plotinus, Anaximenes, and others. Plutarch, Pliny and Macrobius taught universal gravity . Pythagoras outlined the theory of Newton . Passages in Strabo, Democritus, lamblichus, Archimedes, Seneca and others imply a knowledge of primitive telescopes and magnifying glasses . Physics .-A book of Agathias (5th century) contains an anecdote showing a knowledge of steam under pressure . Saint Yves d'Alveydre in his Mission of the Jews shows by quotations how in antiquity the electricity of lightning was utilised . The Hindus and the Arabs had an astounding method of psychic telegraphy which rendered them independent of telephone and telegraph . A manuscript by Panteselenus, a monk of Athos, shows according to ancient Ionian writers the application of chemistry to photography (camera obscura, sensitisation of plates etc .) Chemistry.-Berthelot has written an imposing book of Chemistry in Alchemy . The Egyptians were well acquainted with this science (mummies, special cements for monuments, etc .) Acids and alkalis were well-known of old . Medicinal chemistry and industrial chemistry were not unknown (metallurgy, distillation, cut glass, beer, sugar, etc .)

APPENDICES 493 More than this, we have lost certain processes such as Egyptian dyeing, malleable glass . Herodotus and Pausanias speak of explosions in mines, Flaccus Graecus of the manufacture of powder (how many centuries before Bacon!) Finally the laws of the evolution of chemical bodies and living beings were foreshadowed in the highest antiquity (the Bible, the Kabbala, etc .) Eastern Science .-It is extraordinary both as to importance and as to antiquity . The Chinese knew the astronomical and the astrological compass, the reason of the tides long before Kepler attributed it to the moon, printing as far back as the 10th century, paper, powder, etc. But we will not insist on this, for everyone knows to what heights the civilisation of the Sons of Heaven rose at a very early date . As to India, it had long ago a considerable science of fluids, which has been preserved down to our days, and of which we in the West only just know the first elements . The following shows how, according to Papus, the flow of life on earth progressed. According to occult teaching, he says in substance, each continent developed first its minerals, then its flora, then its fauna, finally its human race . Each race includes sub-races which have their own particular evolution. A first continent must have arisen where the Pacific is now, and which Papus calls Lemuria . Lemuria perished (only the Oceanian remain) and Atlantis was born between Europe and America (the Atlantic Ocean) . On this Atlantis the Red Race probably lived . It perished in its turn when it had reached a high civilisation, at a period when the Black Race began to dwell in Africa . A few of the Red Race survived . The flow of life then produced the White and Yellow Races in Europe and Asia . According to this theory, which supposes that a new race always replaces a decaying one, what we call' savages (Oceanians, negroes, redskins) are in reality former civilised races in retrogression . An application of this principle is obvious in the evolution of the White Race which follows the law of the flow of life, just as every Continent, every Planet, every Solar System . Civilisation, born in the East, in fact passed into Egypt at a time when Greece barely woke up to intellectual life, and Rome came into existence . Egypt declined when Greece rose and Rome followed on behind . When the Greek decadence ensued (in Alexandria), Rome took the lead in the march of the world . This forward movement still goes on . Europe shines with an incomparable brilliancy . But the Star of America is rising. When Europe declines, the New World will attain its apogee . Then Western

494 THE OCCULT SCIENCES Civilisation will renew the place of its origin, the East . Then the tradition of the East will become one with the science of the West . This will be the first turn in the great cycle of the White Race . NoTE VI A Recent Instructive Enquiry. It was made in May 1924 for the Petit Journal (definite proof of the growing interest existing among the public in Occult Science) by Messrs. Marcel Nadaud and Maurice Pelletier, writers of integrity and eminence, whose names are a guarantee for the soundness of their information . In seventeen articles, read with intense interest by a mass of people who admittedly, seeing the standing of the paper itself, are not generally very learned in the matter of science, the authors dealt with a number of modern events in which is shown the survival of the occultist spirit and of the secret practices belonging to what were formerly called the Accursed Sciences. Yes, in 1925 there are still sorcerers who succeed in their practices, Satanists who die from magical operations. Yes, in 1925 there are still ritual murders as in the time of Voisin and Brinvilliers, there are Black Masses and Bewitchings . But there are also still alchemists who transmute metals into gold, physicians who follow the old spagyric medicine, astrologers, chiromancers whose predictions come true . The enquiry which we mentioned above confirms it in a startling manner . We shall not attempt to deal with it fully, but will confine ourselves to extract from it the following characteristic points . Mr. Nadaud found in a room in the Rue Garanciere an antiquarian who sold stolen chalices and profaned hosts which were undoubtedly intended for satanic rites. He further quotes the case of the wife of a colonial official dying of an unknown disease, under whose bed one evening was found the heart of an animal pierced with needles and wrapped in a handkerchief bearing the monogram of the patient . A Martinique woman who was in the lady's service thereupon disappeared. The servant was bewitching the unhappy woman, who recovered as soon as the servant had left . In another article he relates a case of bewitchment, this time a young woman married in the Island of Reunion, who was under the spell of a negress seduced by the husband. The young couple took refuge in Europe . The patient was without success treated in a nursing home at Sevres, and

APPENDICES 495 Mr. Nadaud found in the neighbourhood a negro probably belonging to the Vaudou sect who there continued the acts of his co-religionist . For there exists an African sect of devil worshippers called Vaudous . Mr. Nadaud described one of their ceremonies which took place on the 9th May 1925 less than six miles from Paris, in the forest of C (Clamart Y) There are also white Luciferians, as for instance the Count de T . . . who invited Mr. Nadaud to an evocation in the Forest of Chantilly, on a stone table at cross roads on a moonlight night in March, and later on at his house where, in accordance with very definite rites, he evoked supernatural evil powers which he succeeded in confining in a crystal globe . In the following December this sorcerer was found dead in his witchcraft laboratory, having been killed by the terrible powers which had escaped from the glass ball, the latter lying at his feet broken into pieces . There is the story of yet another Sabbath, but at this time the author was present in imagination only, having been rubbed with a special ointment and half intoxicated by swallowing a sweetmeat producing hallucinations . We have ourselves set up this hypothesis of visions of the Sabbath, a phenomenon which as yet remains obscure . But not obscure whilst true are acts of witchcraft . Mr . Pelletier tells of one which took place in the Department of the Sarthe, where an old sorcerer cast a spell on the cows of a farmer of the name of Lecuru . For this purpose he sacrificed a black hen, mixed its crushed viscera with clover, made this up with wax into little figures of cows, pierced them with pins whilst muttering curses, and secretly buried them in the stable, where the lovely living cattle of Master Lecuru promptly began to swell and die one after the other, until the enraged farmer put the caster of spells out of the way with his gun. Very remarkable also is the description by Mr . Pelletier of an exorcism by Abbe D . . . who alone is authorised by the Archbishop of Paris to drive out the devils from the bodies of the numerous possessed persons who come to see him . Then there is the strange hypothesis that Landru did not kill his victims (no definite proof has ever been produced that he did so), but that he hypnotised them in order to rob them, taking away their memory, and sending them back into the world after having divided their personality, so that to-day they probably languish, living but non-existent, in some madhouse or in no one knows what dark places, entirely forgetful of their previous existence . The above enquiry reminds us that amongst spagyrist physicians we must not forget Mr. Sauter, of Geneva, who distills the quintessence of plants and uses it in obtaining miraculous cures ; and amongst alchemists we must not omit the greatest of them, Jollivet-Castelot who, the ultimate heir of Lullius and Bacon, the pupil and follower of Tiffereau and Poisson, is at present working at the manufacture of

THE OCCULT SCIENCES 496 gold, at the using of metallic ferments, although no official laboratory has ever been willing to open its doors to him . As to ritual murders, Mr . Nadaud claims that they still take place, and even fairly frequently, which explains that on an average 400 persons disappear annually without any trace ever being found of them . He himself knows two sects of Satanists, one called Charlestown, having its temple in the northern suburbs of Paris, the other called SaintMerry, with branches in the provinces and in Belgium, which holds its meetings in the 4th arrondissement of Paris . Our enquirers also mention the modern astrologers and the masters of whom we have spoken, and they add the names of Allendy, Grorichard, Trarieux (Gabriel, the writer), L . Briquet, Kronstrom (the founder of an astrological society in Copenhagen) . Further they refer to the astral sign-manual of the family of Sand, a case which must not be overlooked . The nativities of all the members of the family of George Sand, the well-known novelist, show the triangle of Mars and Neptune (except in the cases of her son Maurice, whose horoscope has seven other points of similarity to that of his mother, and his daughter, a novelist of the present day whose name is beginning to make itself known and respected) . The article closes with the following beautiful page which will "also close this note :" Last year General Ferric, one of the Kings of Wireless Telegraphy, tried a remarkable experiment . With the intention of transforming the light rays into sound waves he placed under the eye-piece of an equatorial (the enormous telescope of observatories) some potassium, which is known to have the power to break up light . In order the better to perceive the sound, he connected the circuit formed by the potassium in action with a loud-speaker. Then he exposed the objective to the light of the stars . Suddenly the loud-speaker began to sing ; a thin melody, of a wavy rhythm, brought the echo of the harmony of the spheres . What did it say ? Did it tell of hope or of melancholy in the Beyond ? Did it bring news of happy births or of sad mournings ? Mystery of universal transformation, whether sorrow or joy of a Universe in perpetual growth, it was the song of the great Whole which has no beginning and will have no end, sung in the serene calm of a clear night of spring by the Stars ! "